Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

The IBGE carried out the Population Census strictly following the recommendations, parameters and protocols for Population Censuses established by the United Nations Statistics Division, as well as according to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.

We highlight that, in this Census, the IBGE introduced a number of technological and methodological innovations based on tools to cover, follow up and control the quality of the operation.

By means of Data Collection Mobile Devices (DMCs) with access to the Internet, the field work was virtually followed up in real time. During the data collection, the GPS coordinates of the addresses visited were successfully captured, as well as of the routes used by enumerators to cover their enumeration areas. This advance allowed to continuously follow up the operation and ensured a greater control of the coverage.

The Census also counted with an edgy automatic supervision system, which allowed to check a sample of addresses visited in the field. The major goal of this supervision was to ensure the coverage of the operation, the proper classification of the households (either as occupied or non-occupied), as well as the quality of the filling of the questionnaires.

The data collection with transmission and processing virtually in real time allowed the precise control of the overage and a better analysis of the information, by means of Dashboard tools and a modern geoinformation service, called Interactive Geographic Platform (PGI).

Through the PGI, the IBGE compared the coordinates of the addresses captured by enumerators with those from databases of other institutions, also allowing the control of the coverage of the territory by immediately pinpointing and correcting possible imprecisions in the field work.

In line with good international practices of transparency and commitment with data quality, remaining less than two months to release the Census results, the IBGE gathered in its headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro, a group of demographers, statisticians and geographers of recognized credibility and excellence.

These experts took part in a workshop to present and assess the Census results. After three days of discussions and more than a month dedicated to analyze the data, the experts committed to provide a report on the technical, practical and methodological efforts engaged by the IBGE since the beginning of the data collection, as well as on the reliability of the data. The document, to be published soon, will be stamped by the United Nations Population Fund, which participated in the event as well.

Still in line with the commitments of good practices of the statistical production, the IBGE carried out the Post-Enumeration Survey (PPE) concurrently with the data collection. Its major goal is to provide more resources to assess the coverage and quality of the data collection through a sample of enumeration areas. The PPE will be released soon as well.

In spite of difficulties and setbacks - administered with an unprecedented transparency, even allowing that problems could be also seen in an unprecedented way -, the IBGE, on top of its reputation, is providing the society with a Census of unquestionable quality and reliability. Undoubtedly, it is the most technological and the most monitored and analyzed Census in real time of the history of Censuses, accomplished for 150 years in Brazil.

 
Steering Committee
July 3, 2023