2011 Census Methodology

METHODOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS

Population

The data on total population published in the results of the 2011 Population and Housing Census (hereinafter 2011 Census) refer to all persons whose place of usual residence on Census Day 2011 was in the Czech Republic.

Place of usual residence refers to the place where a person usually resides daily, notwithstanding any temporary absences for the purpose of recreation, visiting, work-related travel, or time spent in a health facility, and where the person is a member of a household.

A person should have lived in the Czech Republic for at least twelve months or intent to stay for at least one year in the Czech Republic to be counted among the country’s usual resident population.

A person’s place of usual residence was determined based on what the person declared in the census form as his or her current place of residence (regardless of the person’s  place of permanent residence or the place of permitted temporary residence). The person’s place of residence one year prior to the census, his or her permanent place of residence or permitted temporary residence, and the place of enumeration were also taken into account.

Institutional residents are persons whose usual place of residence is any of the many types of residential or treatment facilities used as individual or collective housing by a large number of people (e.g. boarding houses, retirement or aged-care facilities, children’s homes, social welfare institutions, public dormitories, student dormitories, youth homes, residential halls, physical and mental health treatment centres, infant homes, convalescent centres).

People resident in other housing units are persons whose place of usual residence is in an emergency shelter, mobile home, recreational house or cottage (i.e. objects that are not part of the housing stock) or accommodation in a residential building but not in conventional dwelling.

Homeless persons are those persons who were identified on Census Day by the enumerator as persons with no home (they are not occupants in conventional dwellings, in other housing units or in collective living quarters). There were no direct questions in the census form to survey for ‘homelessness’. In conformity with international recommendations, the place of usual residence of a homeless person is his/her place of enumeration. In the census results, homeless persons are geographically included in the place of enumeration only and in the data on persons. Household data were not surveyed for homeless persons.

In addition to country of citizenship the census results usually give separate data for persons with dual citizenship and for persons with no country of citizenship when these statuses were ascertained.

 Ethnicity, including dual ethnicity, was recorded as freely declared by the respondent’s wishes and on a voluntary basis, so a respondent could also refuse to report his or her ethnicity. A similar approach – voluntary reporting of the item as freely indicated by the respondent – was applied to religious belief.

Language was defined as the language that the respondent’s mother, or the persons who raised the census respondent, spoke with the respondent when he or she was a child.

Marital status indicates the respondent’s de jure, i.e. legal, marital status. Cohabiting partners, a de facto status, were distinguished only under data on households. The difference between the sum of individual categories of marital status and the total number of persons is made up of persons whose marital status was not identified and of persons living in a registered partnership.

A registered partnership is a de jure, i.e. legal, status and represents a registered partnership between two same-sex persons formed in conformity with Act No. 115/2006 Coll. on Registered Partnerships or in conformity with relevant legislation in effect in other countries.

Mother’s place of residence at the time of the person’s birth refers to the de facto place of residence of the mother when the respondent was born, i.e. the respondent’s first place of residence immediately after birth.

Educational attainment was surveyed only for persons aged 15 years or older based on the respondent’s highest completed level of education. Educational levels distinguished post-secondary education (ISCED 4A) (which includes post-secondary and continuing education and graduates of two or more secondary schools terminating in a final exam or a school-leaving exam) and post-secondary professional education (ISCED 5B) (graduates of post-secondary professional schools terminating in the award of a diploma). The census included three categories of tertiary education (ISCED 5A, 6): bachelor (only graduates of a bachelor’s degree programme), master (graduates of a master’s study programme or under the former system university graduates generally) and doctor (graduates of a doctoral study programme or under the former system a higher doctorate).

Field of education was ascertained only for persons aged 15 years or older whose educational attainment is higher than complete primary education and it was determined according to the respondent’s specialisation at the highest level of education completed.

Economically active are all persons who represent the labour force – both employed (working) and unemployed.

Employed are all persons aged 15 years or older who on Census Day either held paid employment as employees, were self-employed (employers, own-account workers, members of producers' co-operatives) or contributing family workers. They also include working pensioners, working students, apprentices, and women on maternity leave.

A person’s status was determined on the basis of his or her formal employment status on Census Day, regardless of the time worked,  the  employment status (permanent or temporary), or type of contract it was based on.

Unemployed are all persons aged 15 years or older who on Census Day had no employment, were actively seeking work and were prepared to take up employment.

Economically inactive are not working pensioners, other not working persons with own source of livelihood, not working students and apprentices, homemakers, children of pre-school age, and other dependent persons.

Employed (working) persons reported their occupation (the actual work performed), status in employment and industry (branch of economic activity) according to their current employment. Unemployed persons reported these information based on the last employment held. The difference between the sum of individual categories of these indicators and the total number of economically active persons consist of persons with data not ascertained and unemployed persons seeking for their first employment who did not answer these questions.

Employers are economically active persons who employ (or employed) one or more persons. Own-account workers are persons who have a licence to do business and hold a self/employment job and employ no other persons – employees – in their business. Employees are persons who hold a paid position of employment.

Questions on commuting to work or school (the location of place of work or school, the frequency of journey, the mode of transport, and the time taken on journey to work or school) were filled in only by employees and by students and apprentices.

Persons commuting to work or school are persons who reported that they are employees or students or apprentices, and whose place of work or school is located in a different building than the one in which their usual place of residence is located. Persons commuting daily outside their municipality of residence are persons whose place of work or school is located in a different municipality than the one in which their usual place of residence is located and who in the question about the frequency answered that they commuted daily.

Households

Data on households were processed according to records in the Dwelling Form. People living in one dwelling reported on their relationships to other members of the same housekeeping household. Households consist of persons who share the same place of usual residence.

Dwelling household consist of persons living together in one dwelling.

Housekeeping household consist of persons who pay jointly for expenses of the household, such as food, living costs, etc. Common housekeeping also applies to children who are members of the household even if they themselves do not contribute to covering household expenses. Types of housekeeping households:

• One-couple family household (married couple, partners in a consensual union - i.e. cohabiting couple, partners living in a registered partnership, or same-sex partners in a consensual union – i.e. same-sex cohabiting couples, in all cases with or without children)
• One lone-parent family household (one parent living with at least one child)
• Household consisting of two or more families
• Non-family multi-person household (two or more persons, related to each other or not, who are in the same housekeeping household but do not form one-couple family household; a  non-family multi-person household also includes households of grandparents and grandchildren)
• One-person household

One-family household may also include other persons if they join common housekeeping of the household.

In the census results, one-family households are also classified according to the number of dependent children in the household. A dependent child is each person in a one-family household who is the son or daughter of the reference person, is economically inactive, and is 0–25 years of age.

A reference person was ascertained in one-family housekeeping households. In one-couple families with partners of different sex the reference person is always the male; in the case of the same-sex partners, the reference person is always the older partner. In a lone-parent family the parent is the reference person.

Housekeeping households were counted for those persons living in a dwelling, in other housing units (emergency housing, recreational housing and cottages) and for families in institutions. Persons living in an institution and homeless persons did not fill in the Dwelling Form and therefore are not counted in the number of housekeeping households.

Buildings

The number of buildings includes all houses used for a residential purpose (whether occupied or vacant), buildings with dwellings (or a dwelling), and collective living quarters without individual dwellings but used for a residential purpose. In addition to family houses and apartment buildings the total number of buildings also includes various other facilities used for a residential purpose – e.g. youth homes, residential halls, children’s homes, social welfare institutes, retirement and aged-care homes, monasteries and convents, asylum facilities, technical facilities with a dwelling unit (e.g. a school with a dwelling) and so on.

Categories of type of building include:

• Family house– a home with a maximum of three separate dwelling units, no more than two above-ground floors, one underground floor, and an attic. Family houses also include recreational homes that have a house number and are part of the national housing stock even if used for recreational purposes. Family houses are classed as detached homes, semi-detached (two family houses built on adjacent lots and structurally connected by a shared wall) and row houses (at least three family homes joined within one circumferential wall)
• Apartment building – a building that has multiple dwelling units accessed along a common hallway or stairwell and is not a family house, and regardless of the number of floors. Apartment buildings also include villas that do not qualify as family houses.
• Other buildings – these are all other types of buildings that are not family houses or apartment buildings.

An occupied building is an object in which at least one dwelling is occupied or which contains collective accommodation for persons with a least one usual resident. An occupied building should be the usual place of residence for at least one person in order for it to qualify as occupied.

An unoccupied (vacant) building is an object that is intended for residential purposes but was not the place of usual residence for any person at the time of the census. The number of unoccupied buildings includes all buildings that contain dwellings, and any buildings that do not contain dwellings but provide collective accommodation if they are designed for habitation. Unoccupied buildings without dwellings or objects providing just short-term accommodation (hotels, tourist housing, hospitals, etc.) are not counted among unoccupied buildings.

The type of owner of the building can be either a natural or legal person. The form of ownership is relevant, not the number of owners. Ownership by natural persons applies also to cases of multiple co-owners of an object if they are natural persons. Cooperative ownership includes all types of housing cooperatives. Dwelling owner association only includes cases where the object as a whole is co-owned by the owners of the flats (dwelling units) and the owners of these units are listed in the land registry as the owners of the units and the co-owners of the object. Mixed ownership means a combination of co-ownership by natural persons (the owners of dwelling units) and a legal person, which is in most cases a cooperative (some of the dwellings are not privately owned).

Dwellings

The character of the housing was ascertained in questions about the type of housing arrangements of dwelling household. Published data pertain to dwellings and their characteristics; in the case of persons, housing arrangements were recognized even for housing outside the housing stock (e.g. cottages, emergency shelters, mobile housing).

An occupied dwelling is a unit in which at least one person has his or her usual place of residence.

A vacant dwelling is a unit that is not the usual place of residence of any person.

Tenure status refers to the status of the occupant of the dwelling. An occupant of a dwelling in private ownership is listed in the land registry as the owner of the unit. A rented dwelling is occupied on the basis of a rental agreement; this also includes cases of persons who are subleasing a rental dwelling unit. A dwelling in cooperative ownership is a unit owned by a housing cooperative and the occupant of the unit is also a member of that cooperative.

Quality of dwelling distinguishes between standard quality dwellings and dwellings of lower quality. Standard dwellings are units that have central heating and complete or some technical facilities or dwellings without central heating but with complete technical facilities. Dwellings with lower quality are units without central heating and with technical facilities or with complete but shared technical facilities. 

A room is defined as a space in a dwelling (usually a living room, bedroom, dining room, or kitchen) designed for habitation with a floor space of at least 8 square metres.

Useful floor space is the sum of floor space of all the unit’s rooms and the kitchen if the latter has a floor space of at least 8 square metres. A kitchenette or kitchen smaller than 8 square metres does not count as a room.

Total floor space is the total floor space of all rooms, the kitchen, kitchenette, or other spaces in the dwelling (amenities, front hall, etc.). Floor space is measured along the inside of the unit’s circumferential wall and does not include cellars, balconies, or enclosed balconies (even if enclosed by glass).

The availability of personal computer to the dwelling household was ascertained regardless of which member of the dwelling household owned it.  

All the calculations of average values of the characteristics of the housing stock – e.g. the average useful floor space of dwellings, average number of rooms per unit, etc. – were computed for dwellings for which said values were ascertained.

COMPATiBILITY OF THE RESULTS OF THE 2011 CENSUS AND THE 2001 CENSUS

The final results of the 2011 Census are processed and published for the usual resident population and classed according to the place of usual residence of a person. By contrast, in 2001 the results were processed and published according to a person’s place of permanent residence or place of long-term residence.

A basic methodological difference that is reflected in all the subject areas of the data is thus the use of the place of usual residence of a person as the defining factor for processing the geographical characteristics and classification of persons, and for processing households, determining the occupancy of dwellings and buildings, and calculating the commuter flows.

All data on persons that involve a comparison of addresses – place of residence one year before the census, mother’s place of residence at the time of the person’s birth and commuting to the workplace or school – are compared to the person’s place of usual residence.

The data on religious belief in the 2011 Census include the statement ‘Believers not identified with a church or religious society’ as a separate category. In the data from the 2001 Census this type of statement was grouped in the category of ‘other and not exactly stated’. In addition to the large number of churches, religious groups, and religious movements on which the 2011 Census publishes separate data, other changes are just terminological and the data are comparable; the category ‘no religious belief’ in the data from the 2011 Census corresponds to the category ‘no denomination’ in the data from the 2001 Census, and in the 2011 Census the term ‘not stated’ replaces the term ‘not known’ in the 2001 data.

Educational attainment is classed, as it was in the 2001 Census, into categories based on the ISCED-97 classification (International Standard Classification of Education). The categories ‘vocational without a school-leaving exam’ and ‘secondary technical without a school-leaving exam’, which were distinguished in the 2001 Census, are merged in the 2011 Census into one category, ‘secondary including vocational (without a school-leaving exam)’‘. Similarly, the categories ‘study programmes with a school-leaving exam’ and ‘complete secondary technical with a school-leaving exam’ distinguished in the 2001 Census are merged in the 2011 Census into the category ‘complete secondary technical (with a school-leaving exam)’.

Levels of education based on ISCED-97

In data on economic activity the categories ‘homemakers’ and ‘children of pre-school age, other dependent persons’, distinguished in the 2001 Census, are merged to form one category in the 2011 Census.

Data on status in employment are classed in conformity with the Classification of Status in Employment (CZ-ICSE). The categories ‘employees in employment contract or civil servants’ and ‘other employees’ distinguished in the 2001 census are merged into one category in the 2011 Census.

Data on field of education, occupation and industry (branch of economic activity) in the 2011 Census differ from the 2001 Census in that they conform to standard statistical classifications: International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-97), Classification of Occupations (CZ-ISCO), Classification of Economic Activities (CZ-NACE).

Persons who frequently change their place of work and persons without a permanent workplace indicated their place of work in the 2001 Census based on the actual place of work at the time of the census. In the 2011 Census a special category was introduced for these persons, i.e. ‘employment without a permanent place of work’, and they are not included in the data on commuting.

The basic criterion for determining a household was the place of usual residence of the person or the persons living together and joins common housekeeping of a household.

Because of the method used to collect the census forms and obtain data, information could only be obtained on relations among members of the household. As a result, in 2011 it was not possible to process data on former category - census households.

The 2011 and 2001 data on family households are only comparable in the case of one-family housekeeping households, where the information on individual such households is processed in the same detail as in 2001.

A limited amount of data on the reference person and his/her characteristics is available; such data are derived only for one-person and one-family households.

The results for housekeeping households – from the perspective of the housing arrangements of household – newly include data on family households living in institutions. There is no comparable counterpart to these data in previous censuses. Persons living in families in institutions were in previous censuses counted as individuals in an institution.

For the first time (in relation to the inclusion of registered partnership in the census) one-couple families also include data on families of the same sex, both registered partnerships and same-sex cohabiting couples (consensual union).

The occupancy of buildings and dwellings is determined by the number of persons with the place of usual residence at the address, unlike in 2001 when it was based on the number of persons with the place of permanent residence. Unlike in 2001 the category ‘temporarily occupied’ was not included for buildings or dwellings.

The structure of the owner of the building is not comparable between censuses. Cooperative ownership includes cases where the housing cooperative is the sole owner of the building (according to records in the land registry). Cooperative ownership includes every type of housing cooperative. In 2001 building cooperatives included only cooperatives established in conformity with Act No. 27/1959 Coll. or cooperatives that had separated from a building cooperative to which it previously belonged. Cooperatives founded for the purpose of privatisation of a building were classed separately. This item also included other legal persons – not just cooperatives – that were established for the purpose of the privatisation of a residential object.

The item mixed ownership has a different meaning. In the 2011 Census mixed ownership was defined solely as a combination of ownership forms. In 2001 it included the dwelling owner associations, regardless of whether all the flats had been privatised or only some of them.  

In the 2011 Census dwelling owner association formed a separate category (if the co-ownership was one hundred per cent).

The current item stone, brick, blocks, and combinations, identifying the material of a building, is comparable to an aggregation of the previous items ‘stone’, ‘stone and bricks’, and ‘bricks, shaped bricks, and brick blocks’, which represented separate categories in the 2001 Census.

On the topic of central heating and type of fuel there are no separate data on objects with remote heating or a community heating centre, nor the type of fuel used in the case of a boiler outside the object; all these categories area included under one item, i.e. ‘installation outside the building’.

Tenure status is not comparable across all items. Cooperative dwelling includes all cases of a cooperative dwelling (see also ‘type of owner’). In 2001 ‘the dwelling of a member of a building cooperative’ and ‘the dwelling of a member of a tenants’ cooperative founded during the course of privatisation’ were two separate categories of tenure status.

A room is defined differently. In conformity with international recommendations, the 2011 Census counts the kitchen as a room as long as it meets the size criteria for a room, i.e. it has a floor space of 8 or more square metres. In 2001 the kitchen was counted as a room only if it was the only room in the dwelling.

Unlike the 2001 Census the 2011 Census reports on not just the number but also the total floor space of the rooms, both separately for each room whose floor space is 8 or more square metres, and separately for rooms whose floor space is 4–7.9 square metres.

The floor space of a dwelling is defined differently in the 2011 Census from 2001 as the sum of the floor space of all rooms, and the kitchen if the floor space of the latter is at least 8 square metres. In the 2001 survey the kitchen was counted in the floor space of a dwelling only if it had an area of more than 12 square metres.

The categories of standard quality and lower quality dwellings replace the previous classification that had four categories of dwelling units. More detailed data on standard quality dwellings by type of heating and technical facilities are published to enable closer comparability to category 1 and category 2 units under the former classification. Dwellings with lower quality are only comparable to aggregations of category 3 and category 4 units under the former classification (2001).

Housekeeping households – one-couple families – include also same-sex couples, both registered partnerships and same-sex cohabiting couples. In 2001 registered partnerships did not exist and same-sex cohabiting couples, if declared in the census forms, were included under non-family households.