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How many Germans are there?
Photo: Andreas Friedrichs / imago images / A.
Friedrichs
From May 15, 2022, 10.2 million people will receive mail from the Federal Statistical Office.
The reason for this is a census that should actually take place in 2021 and has been postponed because of the corona pandemic.
This was announced by the authority in Wiesbaden.
The census will determine "how many people live in Germany, how they live and work." In addition, questions are asked about age, marital status, nationality and living and work situation.
Owners and property managers should provide information about their living spaces, people in dormitories and shared accommodation would also be recorded statistically.
Most of the data would come from administrative registers.
Participants could answer many questions online.
Only part of the information should be queried in brief personal contact, for example at the front door with distance and mask.
"This not only relieves the respondents themselves, but also the environment," said the President of the Federal Statistical Office, Georg Thiel: "In times of Corona, the option of contactless online surveys plays a central role."
Volunteers wanted for the interview
Volunteers for the surveys are already being sought in the municipalities.
The city of Frankfurt is looking for around 450 so-called survey officers who, after a one-day course, will each conduct around 150 surveys and transmit the data.
You will receive an expense allowance of around 1300 euros.
The interviewers must undertake in writing to maintain statistical confidentiality and receive a special ID.
A census is scheduled every ten years.
The last census in 2011 showed that in many cities and towns there were fewer people than assumed - with painful financial consequences, since the amount of payments from financial equalization is based on the size of the population.
The current procedure cannot be compared with the census in the 1980s in what was then federal territory, underlined the Federal Statistical Office.
There had been calls for boycotts and a successful constitutional complaint against them.
At that time all citizens were obliged to provide information, it was a so-called full survey.
The results of the 2022 census are expected to be available by the end of 2023.
atb / AFP / dpa
