FORMS for the 1996 Census of Population must be completed tomorrow night, and their collection will begin on Monday. The census will be the 14th and last of the 20th century.
Some 1.2 million forms have been issued to houses, flats and institutions. There are 24 questions to be answered on each, relating to every adult and child present at the relevant address on census night.
Persons normally present at an address but absent tomorrow night should not be included. While the Central Statistics Office has not specified when on Sunday night the form should be filled in, the defining time for inclusion is midnight.
Babies born after midnight on Sunday should not, strictly speaking, be included. At the other extreme, a person who dies in the early hours on Monday should remain on the form.
People returning from abroad after midnight on Sunday should not be counted. But all those travelling within Ireland or between one household and another on Sunday night should be included on the form for the address at which they spent the night.
Completion of the census form is compulsory. However, the CSO assures complete confidentiality. The data is stored for statistical purposes only, and no other Government department or agency has access to information on particular applicants and households.
Computer files containing the results of surveys do not generally contain the names and addresses of correspondents. Exceptions are made under the 1993 Statistics Act, when there are "strong statistical reasons for doing so". But the CSO says this refers to agricultural and other surveys and envisages no circumstances in which it would arise with the population census.
Completed forms will be collected by the 4,000 enumerators and supervisors. All enumerators carry CSO identification.
Information from the 1996 census will influence Government and EU planning policy in future years. It will also complete Ireland's population profile for the 20th century, during which the population of the Republic fell to a low of 2.8 million in 1961. It was 3.5 million at the time of the last census in 1991.
