QCOSTARICA – It started on Wednesday and until June 28, some 14,500 people will be knocking on doors for the national census with the purpose of updating the statistical data and censusing almost two million homes.
The interview lasts approximately 25 minutes and the data will be automated in real time, with census takers using a cellular phone to ask the questions and record the answers. In areas where cellular service is spotty to non-existent, yes there are placed like that in Costa Rica, census takers will use the paper form (with exactly the same questions), record the answers and later upload them.
Coordinators, supervisors and census takers will identify themselves with a card, INEC vest, official stationery and have been instructed not to enter homes, in order to provide tranquility and security to the population.
In addition, people can confirm online the identity of the census taker.
The questions are related to topics such as type of housing, demographic characteristics of the population, type of housing occupation, educational characteristics, housing tenure, access to social security, physical condition of housing materials, disability, access to basic services, ethnicity, access to information and communication technologies, as well as economic characteristics.
In addition, citizens must take into account that at the time of the interview they will need to have at hand basic information on the members of the household, such as ID number, as well as knowing their age, place and date of birth, last grade in school, college or university, where they work and the position they hold at their workplace.
