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Census Recommendations
The population and housing census is an important pillar of a national statistical system, providing data on the population and its social, demographic and economic characteristics. In June 2025, the United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution urging Member States to conduct at least one population and housing census under the 2030 World Population and Housing Census Programme, from 2025 to 2034. The Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2030 Round of Population and Housing Censuses provide guidance and assistance to countries in the planning and execution of their population and housing censuses. They reflect the reality and needs of countries of Europe, North America, Central Asia and other countries participating in the Conference of European Statisticians. The Recommendations facilitate and improve the comparability of census data through the identification of a core set of census topics and the harmonization of concepts, definitions and classifications.The Conference of European Statisticians endorsed the Recommendations in June 2025.
UNECE
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November 2025
Acknowledgements
The Chairs led their respective UNECE task forces over the course of 2022–2025:
Task Force 1, Emergency Preparedness and Contingency Planning: Geoff Bowlby, Canada
Task Force 2, Quality assessment and quality management: Donatella Zindato, Italy
Task Force 3, Enumeration methods: Jon Wroth-Smith, United Kingdom (National Records of Scotland)
Task Force 4, Technology: Andres Vikat, UNECE (July 2022 – January 2023, Edgar Vielma, Mexico)
Task Force 5, Population concepts and related definitions: David Thorogood, Eurostat
Task Force 6, Economic characteristics: Ann Lisbet Brathaug, Norway
Task Force 7, Migration and mobility (national and international): Ahmad Hleihel, Israel
Task Force 8, Household and family characteristics: Nora Galbraith, Canada (July 2022 – November 2023, Pierre Turcotte, Canada)
Task Force 9, Sex and gender: Amy Smith, United States of America
Task Force 10, Housing topics: Sixten Thestrup, Eurostat
Task Force 11, Geospatial information and small area statistics for censuses: Janusz Dygaszewicz, Poland
Task Force 12, Dissemination of disaggregated census data: Fabian Bach, Eurostat
Task Force 13, Communication and outreach: Christine Léger, Canada
The UNECE Steering Group on Population and Housing Censuses, chaired by Eric Schulte Nordholt of the Netherlands, oversaw the preparation of the Recommendations. At the UNECE Secretariat, Fiona Willis-Núñez coordinated the work until 2024, and Andres Vikat and Paolo Valente in 2025.
Altogether, 208 census experts from 37 countries and 12 international organizations participated in the preparation of the Recommendations (see Annex III for the full list of contributors).
UNECE is grateful to all of these experts for their contributions, as well as to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Eastern Europe and Central Asia office and to the Interstate Statistical Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS-Stat) for supporting the related expert meetings.
© United Nations Economic Commission for Europe