MEPs will vote today on plans for a new European Commission census which will go further than any national census.
The EU-wide census, which needs approval from EU governments, would gather up information on everything from personal and family details to education, occupation, hours worked, and marital status.
The Commission proposal being considered by the European Parliament says international, European and national institutions need to be in possession of sufficiently reliable information on the EU's population and housing situation.
Accurate statistics help formulate policy, it says, and the Commission already collects data on many aspects of EU life, via its Luxembourg-based "Eurostat" department.
But much information is gathered nationally, and the Commission argues it needs more central control to help its work: "The data has to be fully comparable at the European level, and is often requested at a level of regional detail, variable breakdown and in a quality that can only be guaranteed by European legislation on population and housing censuses."