How many people live in Russia?
Published 19 December, 2008, 19:41
The population census planned for autumn 2010 aims at gaining a full picture on demographic, economic, family and housing conditions of Russians. But Russians seem to be irritated with the growing interest of the state in their private lives.
A trial version of the census has already been conducted in St. Petersburg, Khabarovsk and the town of Balashikha, a suburb of Moscow.
Statisticians had hoped to receive more explicate answers from citizens concerning marital relations, reproductive plans and living conditions. However the trial censuses have shown that Russians not only refused to answer private questions, but were also extremely unfriendly, Vremya Novostei Daily reported.
Citizens do not want to reveal information concerning their private lives and financial conditions to state officials. People reacted negatively, for example, to questions on planned children or sources of incomes.
According to the vice-president of the Federal Agency of State Statistics Rosstat, Alexander Surinov, the state should not expect people to fill out and send back questionnaires voluntarily. The trial population censuses showed that the number of questionnaires returned was less than 10 percent. In the USA the number of returned questionnaires is nearly 70 percent.
If this method worked in Russia, the state would save two thirds on census costs, as it would eliminate salaries paid to copyists. The general budget of the all-Russian population census of 2010 is around 17 billion roubles ($US 60 million).
Despite the sceptical attitude of respondents, Rosstat officials do not doubt that the data received will suffice for the estimation of the internal social, economic, demographic and migratory situations, and for the comparison of Russian figures with UN countries, Surinov said.
