Swipe Icon
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
November 2025
Acronyms and abbreviations
ABDR
Address, buildings and dwellings register
AI
Artificial intelligence
API
Application programming interface
CES
Conference of European Statisticians
CIS-Stat
Interstate Statistical Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States
EC
European Commission
ECOSOC
Economic and Social Council
Eurostat
Statistical Office of the European Union
EU
European Union
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FPOS
Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
GA
General Assembly
GIS
Geographic information system
GISCO
Geographic information system of the European Commission
GSBPM
Generic Statistical Business Process Model
GSGF
Global statistical geospatial framework
ICF
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
ICLS
International Conference of Labour Statisticians
ICT
Information and communications technology
ILO
International Labour Organization
INSPIRE
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community
ISIC
International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities
ISCED
International Standard Classification of Education
ISCO
International Standard Classification of Occupations
ISO
International Organization for Standardization
IT
Information technology
ITF
International Transport Forum
ITRS
International Territorial Reference System
KPI
Key performance indicator
NSO
National Statistical Office
PIN
Personal identification number
SDC
Statistical disclosure control
SDMX
Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange
SMART
Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
SNA
System of National Accounts
TV
Television
UIS
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UNECE
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNESCO
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund
UN-GGIM
United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management
UN-IGIF
United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework
UNSD
United Nations Statistics Division
WHO
World Health Organization
WPA
World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons
WG-SS
Washington Group Short Set on Functioning