Press release No. 35 of September 28, 2022

• 85% of the answers received in the census of buildings and housing were given online
  

• Dr. Georg Thiel: “Digitalisation strategy of the 2022 Census has been successful.”
  
  

   

WIESBADEN - This year’s census in Germany – a population census combined with a census of buildings and housing – focuses on digital response options. “The digitalisation strategy of the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder in the 2022 Census has been successful”, Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office, concludes. “With an online rate of currently 85%, an overwhelming number of responses received in the census of buildings and housing are digital. This allows us to directly process the data. Completing the user-friendly online questionnaire is much easier for the people.” Alternatives were available to those who, for various reasons, could not, or did not want to complete an online questionnaire. Housing companies are not included in this rate as they use a different electronic reporting channel.

A majority of census responses are given online
Postal letters and personal interviews were inevitable in the household survey for methodological reasons. Afterwards, the focus was on the online questionnaire at www.zensus2022.de. It is accessible and available in up to 15 languages in addition to German. In the survey of households and residential establishments, 81% have so far used the online questionnaire. Subsequent data processing is fully digitalised.
People who had questions on the 2022 Census could access the census website, have their questions answered interactively or use a contact form to address them to the relevant Land statistical office or the Federal Statistical Office.
Mobile devices such as tablets were used in some Länder to support the interviewers in the household survey. Plans have been developed for the tablets to be used otherwise, for instance in schools, after the end of the census.

Online census questionnaires used 23.8 million times
People in Germany have used the online option 23.8 million times so far to answer the questions of the 2022 Census. In the census of buildings and housing alone, this has saved an estimated amount of paper of over 40 million sheets. This corresponds to a weight of approximately 200 tonnes. On the whole, more than one million gigabytes of data are processed in the 2022 Census, with the most stringent technical and organisational security measures in place.
The results of the 2022 Census will be released in November 2023. The releases will be available free of charge in a digital form to everyone.

Further information on the 2022 Census and pictures for reproduction are provided at www.zensus2022.de. There you will also find sample questionnaires (in German) of the 2022 Census surveys. If you are interested, we will be pleased to find you interview partners to discuss census issues.

Follow us on www.twitter.com/zensus2022!

For further information: www.zensus2022.de/contact