The North's census takers say they have avoided the problems besetting their counterparts in Britain.
A census helpline in Britain has been overwhelmed, with 700,000 callers proving too much for its 800 operators.
Both censuses take place tomorrow and are the most complex ever. The Northern version has only 35 questions compared with 41 in the British version.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance and Personnel said it had to deal with only five or six thousand queries so far, and most of these related to householders not having received forms.
While the majority of forms are being hand-delivered, over 47,000 have been posted to farmers because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Over 3,000 people will be involved in collecting and processing the census from over 650,000 homes in an operation which will cost £8 million.
Once completed, the forms should be returned in the prepaid reply envelopes as soon as possible and not later than June 30th. For the first time, the Northern Ireland census will contain a question on ethnicity, as required under the 1997 race-relations legislation.
People will be asked to tick "White, Chinese, Irish Traveller, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean, Black African or Black Other". Specific to the North are new questions on the "lowest floor level of accommodation" and "number of stories of accommodation," to verify what percentage of the elderly, disabled and families with young children live in unsuitable housing.
Despite earlier plans, there will be no question on income. Advice leaflets are available in braille, large type and on audio tape. Some callers have sought Irish or Ulster Scots translations of the form but only translation leaflets in those languages are available, along with leaflets in Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi and Bengali.