Overview

Identification

COUNTRY

Mongolia

TITLE

PHC 2010
 

Version

VERSION DESCRIPTION

Version 2.0
 

Overview

ABSTRACT

The Population and Housing Census is the biggest event organized by the National Statistical Office. The unique feature of the Census is that it covers a wide range of entities starting from the primary unit of the local government up to the highest levels of the government as well as all citizens and conducted with the highest levels of organization. For the 2010 Population and Housing Census, the management team to coordinate the preparatory work was established, a detailed work plan was prepared and the plan was successfully implemented. The preliminary condition for the successful conduct of the Census was the development of a detailed plan. The well thought-out, step by step plan and carefully evidenced estimation of the expenditure and expected results were crucial for the successful Census. Every stage of the Census including preparation, training, enumeration, data processing, analysis, evaluation and dissemination of the results to users should be reflected in the Census Plan.
 

Coverage

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE

All aimags, soums, districts, bags, horoos and capital city.
 

Producers and Sponsors

PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR(S)

OTHER PRODUCER(S)

FUNDING

Metadata Production

METADATA PRODUCED BY

DDI DOCUMENT ID

DDI-MNG-NSO-ENG-PHC-2010-v3.0

Data Collection

Data Collection Dates

Data Collection Mode

face-to-face

DATA COLLECTION NOTES

The enumeration takes a very short time compared to the preparatory phase. It also acts as a check on how well the census preparation was done. The enumeration started at 8 AM on November 11, 2010 and lasted 7 days until 12 AM on November 18, 2010.
The information on the importance of active participation in the census as well as every citizen’s responsibility to be covered by the census and population registration in order to support the government actions to give national benefits to each citizen was disseminated. It was very clear from the first day of the census that the public was aware of the importance of participating in the census and actively participated in the census.
On the first day of the census, the Speaker of the State Great Khural made a speech at the opening of the Parliament session, and the enumerations of the families of the President of Mongolia, Speaker of the State Great Khural and the Prime Minister were publicised by the media.
Mr. S. Batbold, Prime Minister of Mongolia and the Chaiman of the State Census Commission made a speech and noted that active participation and the patriotic attitude of every citizen of our country is important for a successful census and he called for every citizen’s active participation in the Population and Housing Census that is conducted once in 10 years. It plays an important role in the country as well as in the world and it is the legal obligation of every citizen for the good of society.
The aimag, the Capital and district levels census commissions had organized census openings in their respective areas and started the census symbolically from the oldest person and advertised it through the media widely. This was the right way to start by following the tradition of respecting the elderly and encouraged the public to actively participate in the census.
During the census dates, the staff of the ad hoc bureaus at all levels were on duty from 8 AM to 10 PM every day and answered all inquiries from the public. Also, they received questions, comments and requests from citizens living abroad through the internet. Queries were answered at the NSO levels every day during 8 AM to 2 AM. The 121 hotline service was implemented during these days at the NSO and provided necessary assistance when needed and closely collaborated with aimag, the Capital and district level ad hoc bureaus. The census commissions and ad hoc bureau staffs visited the primary units at the local administration level and provided assistance when needed.
In terms of the enumerators and supervisors’ performance, enumerators of urban areas reported on their work every day and consulted if there were any issues and difficulties. Enumerators of rural areas had a meeting with their supervisors every 2-3 days and additionally consulted when needed. The team from the NSO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade worked in the USA, Korea, China, Russia, Germany, Turkey, France and several European cities and this enabled the successful coverage of Mongolian citizens living in these places. The number of households and people enumerated on each day were compiled the following day and close monitoring was conducted on this progress. Also, the progress of November 11-13, 2010 was reported on November 14th and the progress of November 14-17 was reported on November 19th to the State Census Commission as well as to the public. Within the first 3 days, 56.7 per cent of total households and 61.5 per cent of households in the Capital were enumerated. Guidance was given to enumerate those in advance who would go abroad for official or private business and be gone during the census days at the bag and khoroo level and the citizens who were going through the border of Zamiin Uud, Dornogobi; Altanbulag, Selenge; Gashuun Suhait, Umnugobi; and Byant-Ukhaa, Ulaanbaatar were enumerated at these points if not enumerated at home. Also, those who travelled between aimags and cities through all modes of transportation were asked to show their enumeration cards at check points and it contributed to the prevention of duplicate enumeration. With the purpose of ensuring the full coverage of individuals in the census and safety of enumerators, some measures were taken such as limiting the hours to sell alcohol in some areas and prohibiting the selling of alcohol in Gobi-Altai, Gobisumber, Bayankhongor, Bulgan, Orkhon, Uvurkhangai, Sukhbaatar, and Khuvsgul aimags. Homeless people who do not have usual residences, or live in entrances, rooftops, staircases, and tunnels and informal miners were enumerated with the support of the General Police Department during the night of November 15, 2010. During the final few days, comments were received from citizens that students were not enumerated at the place where they were and following this concern, the NSO staff in collaboration with respective district ad hoc bureaus visited some student dormitories of the National University of Mongolia, the University of Science and Technology, the Mongolian Educational University, and the University Agriculture on November 17, 2010. Supervisors had a significant contribution to the quality of the census by assisting the enumerators to check the interviews, and providing guidance and re-trainings on the job. The supervisors monitored the enumerators’ works by visiting the households where the enumerators had visited and checked the accuracy of the questionnaire taken.

Data Processing

Data Editing

Data Processing System

The introduction of internet technology and GIS in the 2010 Population and Housing Census has made the census more technically advanced than the previous ones. Compared to the data processing of the 2000 Population and Housing Census the techniques and technological abilities of the NSO have advanced. The central office - National Statistical Office has used an internal network with 1000 Mbps speed, an independent internet line with 2048 Kbps speed and server computers with special equipments to ensure the reliable function of internal and external networks and confidentiality. The Law on Statistics, the Law on Population and Housing Census, the guidelines of the safety of statistical information systems and policies, the provisional guidelines on the use of census and survey raw data by the users, the guidelines on receiving, entering and validating census data have created a legal basis for census data processing.
The data-entry network was set up separately from the network of the organization in order to ensure the safety and confidentiality of the data. The network was organized by using the windows platform and managed by a separate domain controller. Computers where the census data will be entered were linked to this server computer and a safety devise was set up to protect data loss and fixing. Data backup was done twice daily at 15:10 hour
and 22:10 hour by auto archive and the full day archive was stored in tape at 23:00 hour everyday.
The essential resources of important equipments and tools were prepared in order to provide continuous function of all equipment, to be able to carry out urgent repairs when needed, and to return the equipment to normal function. The computer where the census data would be entered and other necessary equipment were purchased by the state budget. For the data processing, the latest packages of software programs (CSPro, SPSS) were used. Also, software programs for the computer assisted coding and checking were developed on NET within the network framework.

INTERNET CENSUS DATA PROCESSING

One of the specific features of the 2010 Population and Housing Census was e-enumeration of Mongolian citizens living abroad for longer period. The development of a web based software and a website, and other specific measures were taken in line with the coordination of the General Authority for State Registration, the National Data Centre, and the Central Intelligence Agency in relation to ensuring the confidentiality of data. Some difficulties were
encountered in sharing information between government agencies and ensuring the safety and confidentiality of census data due to limited professional and organizational experience, also because it was the first attempt to enumerate its citizens online.
The main software to be used for online registration, getting permission to get login and filling in the census questionnaire online as well as receiving a reply was developed by the NSO using a symphony framework and the web service was provided by the National Data Centre.
Due to the different technological conditions for citizens living and working abroad and the lack of certain levels of technological knowledge for some people the diplomatic representative offices from Mongolia in different countries printed out the online-census questionnaire and asked citizens to fill in and deliver them to the NSO in Mongolia. During the data processing stage these filled in questionnaires were key-entered into the system and checked against the main census database to avoid duplication.

CODING OF DATA, DATA-ENTRY AND VALIDATION

Additional 136 workers were contracted temporarily to complete the census data processing and disseminate the results to the users within a short period of time. Due to limited work spaces all of them were divided into six groups and worked in two shifts with equipments set up in three rooms and connected to the network. A total of six team leaders and 130 operators worked on data processing. The census questionnaires were checked by
the ad hoc bureau staff at the respective levels and submitted to the NSO according to the intended schedule.
These organizational measures were taken to ensure continuity of the census data processing that included stages of receiving the census documents, coding the questionnaire, key-entering into the system and validating the data. Coding was started on December 13, 2010 and the data-entry on January 7, 2011. Data entering of the post-enumeration survey and verification were completed by April 16, 2011. Data checking and validation started on April 18, 2011 and was completed on May 5, 2011. The automatic editing and imputation based on scripts written by the PHCB staff was completed on May 10, 2011 and the results tabulation was started.

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