Register-based household statistics

Margareta Carlsson, Statistics Sweden

Sweden's last traditional population and housing census was conducted in the early 1990s. The survey was widely questioned in the country and was costly and time consuming for both respondents and Statistics Sweden. Afterwards, the decision was made that traditional population and housing censuses would not be carried out. It was also agreed that work would begin to enable a population and housing census based totally on registers. As an EU member state, Sweden has an obligation to conduct a population and housing census for 2011 and this would be completely based on register data for the first time. A fully register-based census requires relatively large preparatory work to be implemented. The work of implementing a register-based census did not represent a one-time event, since the registers and the connection between them are continuously updated. This means that data on, for example, households in Sweden can be regularly produced. The report describes the work involved for a census totally based on registers and how this work has enabled an annual register-based, total set of household statistics in Sweden.