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International Workshop on Register-Based Censuses
Administrative registers are a potential source of low-cost, continuous and geographically complete statistical data, arising from existing data derived from the administrative processes of various ministries and government agencies. As such, they cover a wide range of information that is important for public policymaking, including social, demographic, economic and financial data. Many countries are actively investigating the possibilities of better using administrative data for statistical purposes, seeking, on the one hand, to reduce the workload and cost of obtaining information through censuses and surveys, and on the other hand, to address the growing magnitude of the non-response in these traditional direct collection methods.
Some developed countries are in an advanced phase of taking advantage of the use of administrative registers for statistical production; however, in Latin America and the Caribbean and other regions, administrative registers are the least frequently used source of statistics, censuses and sample surveys (more expensive) being the most used tools. Although it is true that the degree of maturity (quality/coverage) of administrative registers for statistical use is heterogeneous within the region, it is pertinent to establish a roadmap that faces the different challenges for progress in the use of administrative registers for statistical purposes. Among them, strengthening the current technical and institutional weakness of some of the national statistical offices of LAC to exercise stewardship over the production of administrative registers and strengthening the specific capacities of the national organizations that manage the registers to guarantee the completeness and quality of the registers they generate.
The process of producing statistics based on administrative registers, and in particular the possibility of developing censuses based on registers, requires the normalization of information under the guidance of national statistical systems. This means that it is necessary to: improve consistency between the definitions and classifications used for administrative registers and those used in censuses and surveys; define classification and coding methods that allow establishing a precise link between the different registers in use; establish methods and good practices to review data inconsistency derived from the use of different sources, among others. They are few national statistical institutes (NSI) and national statistical offices (NSO) of the LAC region that have been dedicating to this type of activities.
This workshop seeks, therefore, to promote ways of working with partners and colleagues who can transfer knowledge about the use of administrative registers for an integrated statistical system.
The specific goals of this workshop are:
- Know good practices and international experiences on register-based censuses.
- Know the state of the art on combined censuses or censuses totally based on administrative registers in countries that do not have a central population register.
- Provide participants with an overview of the possibilities, challenges and risks when moving from traditional censuses to combined and register-based censuses.
- Explore regional experiences on integrated statistical registers systems and pilot register-based censuses.
- Develop a roadmap that addresses the different challenges for advancing the use of administrative registers for statistical purposes.
Practical information
The event is aimed mainly at experts from Latin American and Caribbean countries and other regions related to the planning and management of population censuses in national statistical offices.
The methodology of the workshop will be based on a combination of presentations and debates in which active participation of the countries is expected, where general information on the availability of administrative registers potentially relevant to support their population and housing censuses can be shared and evaluated.