National census 2011

[Bonobo]

I have already completed the on-line questionnaire for my family. It took me about 40 minutes- no problems whatsoever. I declared that we are all of Polish nationality, speak Polish at home, belong to Roman Catholic denomination, are family-oriented, have no extra-marrital partners, and many other. Just typical Poles.


Over half a million Poles sign Census online
04.04.2011 15:22

Over 500,000 Poles have completed the National Census online since it was inaugurated at the beginning of April.

The National Census, which went online on 1 April, has so far not caused too much trouble for Polish Internet users, although some remarks have been made about the system, the Central Statistics Office has announced.

“The problems mentioned are mostly glitches,” Artur Satora from the Central Statistics Office told Polish Radio, adding that “this is a massive undertaking and not everyone can use the system at once, so we are asking people to be patient.”

This is the first National Census which respondents can reply to on the Internet. The last Census was undertaken in 2002, before Poland joined the European Union.

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[Bonobo]

Census – left cries foul over forgotten atheists
22.04.2011 07:14

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) is protesting that respondents filling in the National Census in Poland cannot tick a box marked “atheist” or “agnostic” in the section on faith and beliefs.

Poland is currently in the middle of the ten-yearly national census, which will be ingoing till the end of June.

The protest pertains to the longer of the two census forms (respondents have so far most frequently filled out a stream-lined version on the internet) however, twenty percent are opting for the more in-depth questionnaire, which extends to religious matters.

"The wording of the questions offers the opportunity to indicate membership of nearly two hundred denominations,” writes SLD MP Slawomir Kopycinski in an open letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“On the other hand, all believers who feel no affiliation to any religion, or agnostics, who believe that it is impossible to determine the existence of God, or even atheists who reject his existence, were thrown into one bag,” he laments.

“There is no other option for them,” he stresses, “apart from indicating the answer: I do not belong to any religion.”

'Other'

Artur Sato, a spokesman from the Central Statistics Office (GUS) responds that other options were not possible.

“There is a category 'other' in the form, offering the possibility of belonging or not belonging to a particular religion or belief. The inclusion of all religions or religious beliefs in the form was not possible for technical reasons,” he said.

SLD spokesman Tomasz Kalita says his party is going to take the matter further.

“We are considering carrying out certain undertakings in parliament,” he promises.

SLD, the party of reformed communists, believes that more research should be done on the matter, with rough estimates currently citing that ten percent of Poles are atheists.

Around 90 percent of Poles usually claim allegiance to the Roman Catholic faith, although a smaller percentage regularly attend church.

[Bonobo]

Thursday marks the last day that Polish citizens resident in the country can complete the National Census online.

While the online census will be unavailable from tomorrow, surveyors will continue to telephone and visit addresses from where no data has been collected until the end of June.

GUS, Poland’s Central Statistics Agency which is conducting the National Census, has released figures which so far show that almost 11 percent of Poles, around 4.1 million people, have filled out the Census questionnaire online.

The Statistics Agency has also reported that 2 percent of the population have yet to fill out the questionnaire until the end of June.

Poland’s National Census is conducted every ten years, with this year’s headcount being the first since Poland joined the European Union in 2004.