Microcensus

The microcensus (small population census ) is a statistical survey. In contrast to the large population census (census), the microcensus is carried out at shorter intervals and with a smaller sample. The number and selection of households is chosen so that the representativeness of the results is statistically secured. The purpose of the microcensus is to check the data collected in the context of comprehensive population censuses at short intervals with a reasonable organizational effort.

Microcensus in Germany

aims

The microcensus provides data on the structure as well as the economic and social situation of the population. With information on family and civil partnerships, households, the labor market and employment, occupation, training, income, housing situation and migration, the microcensus is an important source of data for political decision-makers, science, the media and the general public. In addition, European data delivery obligations are met by means of the microcensus. In addition, the data of the microcensus form the extrapolation framework for other official and non-official statistics, such as the sample income and consumption or the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

According to its original aim, the microcensus fulfills the task of checking the data collected in the context of comprehensive censuses at short intervals with a manageable organizational effort. In view of the political and legal problems that have opposed a census in Germany since the 1980s (cf. census judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court ), the microcensus has become a central source of information for the creation of public statistics.

development

In 1949 the OEEC (Organization for European Economic Co-operation) - the predecessor organization of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) - recommended that the member states carry out a sample survey of workers according to uniform definitions. As a result, comparable information on the workforce and economic development should be available after the end of the Second World War. In Germany, however, the microcensus was not designed exclusively to provide data on workers, but also as so-called representative statistics of the population. This should also include general information on the structure and the economic and social situation of the population.

The microcensus has been carried out annually since 1957 in West Germany and since 1991 in the whole of Germany.

The legal basis of the microcensus is the law for carrying out representative statistics on the population and labor market participation as well as the housing situation of households (microcensus law - MZG) in conjunction with the federal statistics law (BStatG) . The Microcensus Act regulates, among other things, the purpose of the survey, the size of the sample, the content and frequency of the surveys, the obligation to provide information and the handling of the data.

Since the start of the microcensus in 1957, there have been several microcensus laws that existed for a limited period of time and were each replaced by a new microcensus law.

In 1968 the EU labor force sample was integrated into the microcensus.

With the new Microcensus Act of 2005, there was a break in the time series due to the switch to interim survey (survey throughout the year instead of just a few weeks of a calendar year), which is reflected in all the results of the microcensus. The MZG 2005 also made it possible for the first time to collect data on naturalized Germans, i.e. former foreigners. This significantly improved the statistical recording of the group of immigrants or “people with a migration background”. The previous rigid division into Germans and foreigners had proven inadequate for social reporting. Accordingly, from 2005 onwards, in addition to the current nationality, any previous nationality and the year of naturalization were recorded in the microcensus. In addition, from 2005, information on the nationality of the parents was collected every four years if they have or had a permanent residence in Germany after 1960. The characteristics are the year of arrival, the former nationality and the year of naturalization, if naturalization has taken place.

After the amendment to the MZG 2005 in 2007, all women between the ages of 15 and 75 were asked for the first time about the number of children they had born alive.

Most recently, a new microcensus law (MZG 2017) was announced on December 13, 2016 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2826 ). It came into force on January 1, 2017 and is valid for the first time for an unlimited period. The extended migration background has been recorded on the basis of this law since 2017. In addition, from 2020 the EU-wide surveys on income and living conditions (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, EU-SILC ) and from 2021 the EU-wide survey on the private use of information and communication technologies will be integrated as sub-samples in the microcensus . Another innovation is that for follow-up surveys with the consent of the respondents, information from the previous survey can be used (dependent interviewing).

Conducting the survey

In Germany, the statistical survey is carried out by the State Statistical Offices and prepared and further developed by the Federal Statistical Office . Every year, 1% of private households in Germany take part in the survey, which corresponds to around 370,000 households with 810,000 people. Only 0.45% of private households take part in the integrated EU-wide survey on labor market participation (labor force survey, LFS ). Only 0.12% of private households take part in the EU-wide survey on income and living conditions, which has also been integrated since 2020 (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, EU-SILC). While the Federal Statistical Office prepares the microcensus organizationally and technically, the State Statistical Offices are responsible for carrying out and processing the surveys themselves.

The households are surveyed up to four times in total. Depending on the sub-sample, households take part in the survey once or twice a year. The selection is based on an area sample , i.e. randomly selected districts with roughly the same number of residential units (six to twelve apartments). This means that not people are drawn into the sample, but apartments or houses in which people live. It is therefore possible that neighboring households that live in the same district will be selected for the microcensus.

In the microcensus, interviewers (so-called survey officers) are employed across the board, who usually enter the information provided immediately into a laptop, where an initial plausibility check can be carried out. In addition, households that are required to provide information have the option of filling out a paper or online questionnaire, providing the information by telephone or being represented by a member of the household (proxy interview).

Obligation to provide information

For most questions there is an obligation to provide information . Some questions in the microcensus can be answered voluntarily. Voluntary questions are specially marked in the questionnaire or the interviewer points this out in a personal conversation. It is true that the MZG 2005 did not provide for the application of the fine standard of the Federal Statistics Act; but this did not include other measures of enforcement , e.g. B. fine, from. The paragraph on the non-application of the regulation on fines of the Federal Statistics Act is not included in the MZG 2017. Thus, a fine or penalty payment procedure can be initiated for persons who do not comply with the obligation to provide information despite reminders and reminders.

The obligation to provide information results from Section 13 of the MZG in conjunction with Section 15 of the Federal Statistics Act (BStatG). All adults in a household and all minors who run their own household are required to provide information. They are also required to provide information for minor household members and adult household members who cannot provide information themselves because of an illness or disability. Nobody can be exempted from the statutory obligation to provide information, not even due to age or illness or due to a lack of language skills.

According to studies by the Federal Statistical Office and studies of empirical social research, the obligation to provide information is necessary in order to achieve the necessary quality and accuracy of the results. The obligation to provide information enables a sufficiently high participation rate for all social groups in the population, which cannot be achieved with a voluntary survey. There is usually a systematic bias in the sample: The participation rates are very low in those social groups with an above-average risk of poverty risk as well as in groups with a particularly high income. If not all people have to answer, then not all population groups would be represented in sufficient numbers in the sample. This could result in distortion of the results and incorrect conclusions.

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) also sees the obligation to provide information as necessary, since in a voluntary survey the response rate from the sample, which is relatively narrowly limited and therefore generally data protection-friendly, is too low to refer to the results to be able to extrapolate the total population.

Survey content

During the survey, some questions are asked to all households selected at random (so-called core program). These include questions about household size, nationality, income, education, employment, housing situation. In addition, some of the households receive in-depth questions on employment (so-called part of the survey on labor market participation) or on income and housing situation (so-called part of the survey on income and living conditions). Personal details such as name and address information are also requested from all households. This information (so-called auxiliary features) is required by the state statistical offices for the organization of the survey. B. Clarify questions. They are stored separately from the other information by law (§ 14 MZG). In particular, religion and ethnicity are not recorded in the microcensus.

Microcensus in Austria

The microcensus in Austria is carried out by Statistics Austria , the independent, not-for-profit federal agency founded under public law in 2000 as the successor to the Austrian Central Statistical Office . The microcensus survey was put on a new legal basis in November 2003 ( Employment and Housing Statistics Ordinance, Federal Law Gazette II No. 549/2003 ). It is a sample survey in which around 22,500 randomly selected households across Austria are surveyed every quarter. The households in the sample are not completely exchanged every quarter, but each household remains in the sample for a total of five quarters. In other words, in each survey round some of the households are eliminated (those that have already been interviewed five times) and around 4,500 “new” households are included in the sample.

Microcensus in Switzerland

In Switzerland, periodic surveys are carried out by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office . These include the periodic SAKE labor force survey , the family microcensus and a number of similar surveys.

Individual evidence

↑ Dieter Emmerling, Thomas Riede: 40 years of the microcensus. (PDF) In: Wirtschaft und Statistik, 1997, edition 3, pp. 160–174 , accessed on July 9, 2020 .
↑ Legal basis of the microcensus - compilation. Federal and State Statistical Offices, Research Data Centers, November 6, 2018, accessed on July 9, 2020 .
↑ § 4 Paragraph (5) Point 2, Microcensus Act 2005 , amendment status July 8, 2009
↑ Janina Hundenborn, Jörg Enderer: The new regulation of the microcensus from 2020. In: Economy and Statistics, 2019, edition 6. Accessed on July 9, 2020 .
^ VG Stuttgart, judgment v. February 27, 2009, Az. 9 K 3538/08 .
↑ Federal and State Statistical Offices: Answers to frequently asked questions about the obligation to provide information. Accessed on July 9, 2020.
↑ Justification for § 13 (obligation to provide information) of the MZG 2017, draft of a law to revise the microcensus and to amend other statistical laws, printed matter 18/9418. P. 44, accessed on July 9, 2020.
↑ The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI): Microcensus Accessed on July 9, 2020.
↑ Anja Stichs: How many Muslims live in Germany? A projection of the number of Muslims in Germany as of December 31, 2015. Federal Office for Migration and Refugees / German Islam Conference, accessed on July 6, 2020 .
↑ Frida Thurm: Has the migration background become obsolete? In: time online. August 10, 2016, accessed August 31, 2018 . Chapter 1 Introduction, p. 8.