Objective portrait

General census of population will take place in Belarus in October, 2009.

Even in the century of information technologies nobody discovered a more perfect way to know how many people live in the country and who are those people. In 2009, during the next census of population, Belarusians will be counted once again. Preparation to this serious investigation is in full play. Here are some curious details.

All citizens of the country will be recorded on October 14–24 of the next year with the help of the inquiry. To those residential places, where live more than 24 thousand people, stationary census areas will be organized, where the citizens will be able to apply, who for some reasons don’t want to answer the questions of the census lists domiciliary at the presence of census takers. In whole, into the census program of Belarusian population of 2009 were included 37 questions on seven main blocks. They deal with demographic, economical, educational features of the society. More than 50 thousand persons will carry out the “society inventory”.

— Population census — 2009 in Belarus (its logo has already been approved) will cost almost 1,5 of US Dollars per a person, — explained the minister of statistics and analysis Vladimir Zinovsky at the press-conference in Minsk. — On the whole, more than 20 billion of Belarusian rubles were allocated from the budget. International organizations will also help, in particular, United Nations Fund for Population Activities. The census lists were composed in the Belarusian and Russian languages (to the discretion of the citizens). I want to underline specially: personal data on the population census are confidential and are not subject to disclosure and are used only for statistical purposes. Afterwards the results will lie in the basis of socio-economical forecasts of the country development.

The forthcoming census-2009 will be three days longer in comparison with a previous one (1999), this will also increase the quality of the event. For the first time into the list of questions were included the data on international and internal migration — information for the last 5 years will be collected, the organizers considered it efficient.

It’s clear that the population census, as any other big campaign, will require much time and finances. However, the information resource is estimated in the whole world higher than money. On the basis of the data obtained economic and social programs will be composed, the state policy will be built. It is even curious to know being a human how the country has changed since the last census, which was held 10 years ago...

Anatoly Nezvansky