Methodological explanations

Method of data collection

The fundamental premise of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia for the 2002 Census was that contents that can be provided from various administrative and statistical sources should not be collected by fieldwork. The contents, which we were able to provide only for a part of the census population, were put on the questionnaires, however it was marked on the questionnaire which questions need not be answered by the respondents because the data will be taken over from the mentioned sources.

To this end the Office set up a special database called the pre-census database. This database combined data from various administrative and statistical sources that were used in the process of data collection and processing. Data sources for preparing the pre-census database:

	Central Population Register;
	Permanent Population Register;
	Register of Spatial Units;
	Statistical Register of Employment;
	Business Register of Slovenia;
	Unemployment Register of the Employment Service of Slovenia;
	data from the Pension and Disability Insurance Institute on people receiving pensions;
	data of the statistical survey on students and graduates;
	1991 Census data.

The contents that were taken over from the pre-census database:

1. Entirely:
		place of birth,
		last migration,
		citizenship,
		marital status,
		field of education,
		employment status,
		operation,
		occupation,
		usual working hours,
		place of work.
2. Partly:
		sex,
		address of the residence one year before the census,
		first residence after birth,
		education program,
		place of education,
		activity.

2002 Census data were thus obtained in two ways:

1. from administrative and statistical sources;
2. with fieldwork where two data collection methods were used:
		self-enumeration, when answers to most questions on the P-2 census questionnaire for dwellings and P-3 census questionnaire for persons were answered by the respondents themselves (for themselves and for other household members);
		classical enumeration, when all census questionnaires were filled in by especially qualified enumerators on the basis of answers provided by the respondent or by an adult member of the household for absent household members and children under 15.

design & programming:ZP & BK