ECLAC makes available the document “General guidelines for the capture of census data: review of methods with a view to the 2020 round of censuses” prepared by the Census Working Group of the Statistical Conference of the Americas

The capture method is one of the crucial definitions that must be considered when planning a population and housing census, since it determines to a large extent processes of previous and subsequent stages (planning or processing) and each method has benefits and challenges. Technological innovations, such as the use of Mobile Capture Devices (DMC) and self-administered interviews over the Internet (eCensus), require the institutional capacity to innovate continuously and without risking the census operation or the quality of the results. Hence, this document provides guidance on the technical, human, organizational, budgetary and legal conditions, among other variables, that must be evaluated when deciding the methods to use.

For the preparation of the document, the CEA-CEPAL Census Working Group, led by the INE of Chile and, with the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center (CELADE)-Population Division of ECLAC as technical secretariat, took as based on the text Guidelines on the use of electronic data collection technologies in population and housing censuses of the United Nations (2019). Likewise, and to broaden the reality of the region, a series of workshops were held for the exchange of experiences and the systematization of lessons learned.