The Principles and Recommendations (P&R) for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 4, were endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th session in 2025 (Decision 56/102). They were developed by a dedicated Expert Group led by the UN Statistics Division and provide global guidance for planning and conducting national Population and Housing Censuses during the 2025-2035 round, considering different regional contexts and the diversity of statistical capacity across nations.
The International Recommendations on Refugee, IDP, and Statelessness Statistics helped to inform the revision process with content included in the final document. The proactive participation of several EGRISS members (contributing to Task Team 7’s work on ‘Recommended topics on population and housing characteristics’ and the wider global consultation) helped to articulate and advocate for this input, enhancing alignment between these instruments. The revised P&R also makes references to the Compiler’s Manual and its Use Case A.
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THE RECOMMENDATIONS
Key considerations on refugees, IDPs, and stateless persons
EGRISS populations of interest are considered in the updated document as “difficult-to-enumerate or difficult-to-reach groups”, defined as those for whom a real or perceived barrier exists to full and representative inclusion in the data collection process. Given this, Revision 4 recommends that:
Wherever possible, refugees and IDPs in camps should be enumerated using questionnaires designed for private households.
p. 167The census communication plan should include messages that it will cover displaced people, refugees and IDPs, that responses are important, and assure data confidentiality in all languages understood by displaced populations.
p. 167Refugees, asylum seekers, and IDPs should be enumerated in both the population present count and the usual resident count if they meet the established duration criteria. To facilitate analysis, these groups should be reported separately.
p. 305Special attention should be given to households that experienced displacement between the census and Post-enumeration surveys (PSE).
p. 282Two additional categories should be listed: stateless or no citizenship/nationality status, and unknown citizenship/nationality status, following the IROSS framework.
p. 306Every effort should be made to include stateless persons in the census — both those with recognised stateless status and those without a recognised nationality status.
p. 306Concerning questions about the reason for changes in respondents’ place of usual residence, countries are guided to devise a classification in accordance with their own needs. Whilst this is not 100% in line with EGIRSS Recommendations that put more emphasis on this element, the P&R provides examples of some common ‘reasons’ that forms can list including forced displacement (conflict, persecution, human rights abuses, natural disasters, etc.).
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