Bulgaria’s 2021 census: Household visits extended by a week
Bulgaria’s caretaker government decided on September 29 to extend the period for household visits by census enumerators to 8pm on October 10, from the original closing date of October 3.
The government information service said that the change was necessary because the extension of the online phase of the 2021 census to September 30 and the parallel conducting of the census by both methods had “caused some difficulties in the organisation of the process”.
It said that ending the in-person phase on October 3 would have left only three days for enumerators to count those who had not participated in the online phase.
The extension of the in-person phase of the process would provide the time necessary for the enumerators to do their work and gather all the information necessary in compliance with Bulgarian and European Union law, the statement said.
Separately, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) issued a reminder on September 29 that the online phase ends at midnight on September 30.
“Electronic counting is faster and more convenient, and people do not have to wait for an enumerator,” the NSI said.
It said that as of 7am on September 29, a total of 2 216 254 people had been counted online.
The NSI said that as of September 28, a total of 1 954 116 people had been counted by enumerators, meaning that so far, more than four million people in Bulgaria had been counted.
Using figures from the 2011 census as a basis, the NSI has estimated that as of December 31 2020, Bulgaria’s population was 6 916 548.
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