By Stephanie Lacaze
Canceled last year, the population census campaign which is organized every year in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, starts this Thursday, January 20. How is it going ? Who is concerned ? Do we have to answer?
1 A month-long campaign
Canceled last year due to the health crisis, the population census campaign starts this Thursday. It will end on February 19 in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants and on February 26 for those above. Since 2004, INSEE has distinguished the two in its methodology. The census thus takes place every year in towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants. It concerns 8% of the inhabitants each time.
To find out if your municipality is concerned, you can go to the online portal (1). At the national level, 5 million dwellings in 8,000 municipalities will be listed this year, which represents approximately 9 million people. In New Aquitaine, the three establishments of Bordeaux, Poitiers and Limoges will supervise the census in 946 municipalities distributed evenly over the territory, and 738 communities, places which bring together people who live together such as retirement homes, i.e. near of 930,000 people. The census makes it possible in particular to define land-use planning policies by targeting the needs of populations.
2 Answers by Internet or on paper
Enumerators are recruited by the municipalities. They have an official card which allows them to be identified. For two years, the protocol has been slightly modified, they no longer systematically ring at each door. In individual houses, they simply drop off the census record with the access codes in the mailbox to answer the questionnaire on the online portal. Elsewhere, they continue their door-to-door work to inform the people listed.
In the absence of a response, the agents go back to each household concerned because participation in the census is compulsory. A fine of 38 euros is even provided for in the event of refusal. However, the response rate is very good at 96%. For people who do not have access to the Internet or who encounter difficulties, it is always possible to complete the individual forms on paper. A telephone help device is even provided.
3 Mobile homes and the homeless identified
The homeless will be counted this year.
G. Bonnaud/”South West”
This year, the questionnaire has been adapted to better reflect changes in society. The boxes “mother” and “father” intended to inform the links of the people within a household have been replaced by “parents”. A change made at the instigation of homoparental family associations.
Another specificity of this campaign, the census concerns mobile homes and the homeless. They are counted every five years in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. This is done during the first two days of data collection to avoid duplicates, because these are by definition populations that move frequently. In Bordeaux, for example, the census of the homeless will take place during the night of solidarity from January 20 to 21. 400 people will roam the streets to distribute and collect the questionnaires.
(1) the-census-and-me.fr