Anabela Delgado Carlota Amorim Statistics Portugal - Census Unit « Simply2010 Ghent 2-3 December 2010 E-CENSUS: A new data collection system for the 2011 Census in Portugal «

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 E-census: Background  Portugal has been adopting policies that foster internet use as a preferential platform for the relationship of the public administration with citizens and enterprises.  In 2009 over 3.7 million (around 80%) electronic tax returns of natural persons were submitted.  To prepare the 2011 Census there is a clear concern as to modernising collection methods and processes, reaping the benefits of the use of information and communication technologies, of which the possibility of answering the 2011 Census online poses the main challenge.

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 E-CENSUS Strategy Placing people first!

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 « E-CENSUS Strategy Easy, secure and beneficial 1. Online form 2. Online validation rules 3. Authentication and security 4. Notification of enumerators 5. Helpline

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Online form  User friendliness  Simple and clean screens  Limited number of questions by screen  Tick-box and listbox  Questions’ instructions through a window system  Web navigation similarities with other websites  Similarities with paper questionnaire

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Online form  Reduce complexity by limiting functionalities to the absolute necessary ForwardBack Save Send Save and return later Next screen Previous screen

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Online validation rules  Compromise between easy completion and data quality  Validation rules were kept to a minimum  Messages appearing during form completion are posted at the top of the page, but never identifying cases requiring users to move to other screens  Types of validation rules  Compulsory responses  Absence of multiple responses  Navigation and skip rules  Cross-validation rules based on the variable age

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Autentication and security Access to the public area 1. ID Code + PIN Acess to the private area 2. Dwelling’s geographic code 3. Fill in the form

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 E-Census: Fill in the form

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Notification of enumerators SMS  SMS allows to control online responses  Enumerators are notified by SMS daily  SMS identifies dwelling’s geographical identification code

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Helpline  Free telephone answering service every day from 9 am to 8 pm  Personalized help  Visualization of the online questionnaire simultaneously  Automatic solving and forwarding system via (BackOffice)

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 E-Census Tests  Statistics Portugal conducted three survey tests in 2008, 2009 and 2010 with a population sample of around 7,000, 17,000 and 45,000 dwellings respectively.  The population had two modes of response options available:  The traditional one  by filling in the paper questionnaire themselves, with subsequent collection and checking by enumerators;  The online form (E-Census)  with recourse to a secure authentication system. Upon distribution of the questionnaires, the enumerator would also leave a closed envelope containing the access codes to the online

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Impact on Fieldwork Organisation and Management Three stages for data collection Census day 2 weeks for door-to-door distribution 4 weeks for paper collection 3 weeks for online data collection 1ª2ª3ª 4ª 5ª

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 E-Census: Data collection system Helpline SMS

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Results

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Online response by day Online response by hour Results

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Results  42 minutes was the average time spent to complete the online form  83% of the households filled it in in a single session and the remaining did so in more than one session, by saving it and returning on a later stage  Less than 1% of users have abandoned the session after concluding the authentication process, which is a rather positive result.

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Opinion Survey 1,71,11,90,7 95,095,9 97,0 98,3 SecurityEasy to answerPleasant Use the internet in the 2011 Census NOYes

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Conclusions  Positive results confirm the strategy followed  easy, secure and beneficial  Over 98% of respondents intend to answer 2011 Census online  Data collected online are of higher quality than those of paper questionnaires  2011 Census online have a great potential, especially among the younger population with a higher educational level  Advertising campaign will be of crucial importance to motivate people to answer online

SIMPLY2010 Ghent, 2-3 December 2010 Thank you for your attention!