Thuringia also contributes data on existing housing, among other things, to the nationwide household survey for the census. Many respondents used the Internet for their reports.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – According to the Thuringian statisticians, the data for the 2022 census has so far been collected unexpectedly smoothly in the Free State. “It went much better than expected or feared,” said the President of the State Office for Statistics, Holger Poppenhäger, the German Press Agency. Not only that, in the course of the census of buildings and apartments, significantly more information was provided online than he initially thought possible. There were also far fewer problems than expected in the household survey. As a rule, people willingly provided information to the so-called survey officers during their visits.
“The willingness to provide information was extremely high,” said Poppenhäger. Apparently, official statistics in Germany still enjoy a high reputation among people. In the nationwide census, the statistical offices collect data on the buildings and apartments in Germany. Among other things, all owners and administrators of real estate must provide information. This also includes data that has never been collected in Germany before. This includes, for example, the type of building heating.
According to Poppenhäger, around 684,000 initial letters were sent to those required to provide information in Thuringia alone for the census of buildings and apartments. To date, around 495,000 of these have been answered via an online portal. A further 95,500 letters were answered in paper form. The latter made the statisticians a lot more work than the online responses.
For the census, households are also asked at random about, for example, the sex, nationality and marital status of the household members. This data is collected in order to draw conclusions about the number of inhabitants in Germany and the structural composition of the population. About 16 percent of all Thuringians have been written to as respondents. About 2,200 volunteer interviewers were used for this personal household survey. 97.5 percent of the data requested has already been recorded, as Poppenhäger said.
According to his information, 74,000 warning letters have been sent to private households or companies that have not yet fulfilled their obligation to provide information in the building and apartment census. “After that, many more answers come back.” According to Poppenhäger, the evaluation of the census should be completed by November 2023.
