Why does Germany need a new census?
Germany needs up-to-date and reliable figures on the population, working life and the housing situation. These data, which are indispensable for a large number of political and economic decisions, can be supplied by a census only.
Census results are updated with results from continuous statistics and supplemented by sample surveys until the next census is conducted. To update for instance the official number of the population, the number of births, deaths, arrivals and departures is used. However, both the updated results and the sample surveys based on census results are bound to become increasingly inaccurate after census day since errors of adjustment and sample updating grow over the years. They occur, for example, whenever persons leave Germany for good but fail to deregister with the authorities.
… because Germany needs new population figures
The official number of the population in Germany is based on updates of results obtained by the latest population censuses held in the former territory of the Federal Republic in 1987 and in the former GDR in 1981. Much has happened since: examples to be mentioned would be the fall of the Berlin Wall, migration from East to West Germany, streams of fugitives for instance as a consequence of the wars in former Yugoslavia, and the rapidly advancing European integration.
The census test of 2001/2002 has shown that population figures have to be revised in Germany. Presently, the number of the population as determined by way of updating will probably be too high by at least 1.3 million. New and reliable information on the population is thus indispensable.
As the data quality of population figures is highly important, the United Nations recommend that censuses be conducted every ten years at the beginning of a decade. In line with that, the European Union has so far called upon its Member States to hold censuses regularly, and it is going to adopt a new regulation in the course of 2007 providing for obligatory censuses to be conducted in 2011.
… because comprehensive information is required on working life
The employment data collected in the census do not refer only to the group of persons covered by the administrative registers of the Federal Employment Agency and of the public sector. Information is also obtained for instance on self-employed and other economically active persons such as family workers in a supplementary sample survey. Comprehensive structural data are needed to correctly assess the impact of technological change on economic life. The census will show, for example, which occupations have increased or decreased since the latest population census, or which professional lines exist in the individual economic branches. It will also show, however, how many people are not employed according to their qualifications.
Census employment data are of specific informational value as they can be related to population structure results.
… because new data are needed on dwellings and their equipment
The supply of housing space differs by regions in Germany. While especially the demand for inexpensive housing space exceeds the supply in some densely populated areas, many dwellings remain vacant in other mainly rural regions. As a consequence, new and reliable data on the housing situation in the various regions are required because they form an important basis of political and planning decisions. Since there is no register including all real estate in Germany, figures of buildings and dwellings are updated until the next census similar to the population figures. As a new basis is needed for that, a census of buildings and housing will be conducted together with the population census.
The fact that updated results occasionally require a new basis was made very clear by the 1987 population census. The updated figures available before the census had shown one million dwellings more than there actually were in the former territory of the Federal Republic.