This Sunday will see households across the country filling out their census forms in a process that should take roughly 30 minutes for the average house.
Once you have completed your form, an enumerator (the person who handed you the form originally) will come to collect it sometime before May 9th.
Filling out a census form is obligatory by law and not doing so or intentionally filling in false information is punishable with up to a €25,000 fine.
The purpose of the census is to provide an account of where everybody is on the night of April 10th, 2011, along with details such as their age, sex, religion, employment and education.
It contains 35 questions - mostly multiple choice - for each person present in the house as well as 12 general household questions such as what type of building it is (eg semi-detached or apartment), whether the household has internet access and how many cars the household use.
The individual sections ask basic questions such as age, sex, date of birth and place of normal residence. There are also social questions included such as your education, employment, how you travel to work and whether you speak Irish.
Two new questions (questions 16 and 18) have been added to this year’s form from the previous census in 2006. They regard a person’s health and languages spoken other than English or Irish within the home.
Question 18 asks how healthy you feel you are. The Central Statistics Office has said that studies show a strong link between how people view their health and their actual condition. They hope that by gathering a countrywide picture of how health is tied to demographics like age, sex, employment and education, health care services in Ireland will know more about key areas that need improvement.
Question 15 asks about languages spoken in the home other than English or Irish. It will also ask those who do speak another language to rate how well they speak English. The question was included to target state resources to people who may struggle speaking English as well as gauge their ability to participate in society through their answers to other questions.
One somewhat ambiguous question is question 12, what is your religion? The Central Statistics Office has instructed that the question does not refer to frequency of attendance at church or other places of worship but rather how you feel now about your religious beliefs or lack thereof.
Atheist Ireland has reminded people who consider themselves atheists not to actually write atheist in the other religion section and instead tick the ‘no religion’ option as atheism itself is not a religion.
There is also a small section provided for people who usually reside in the house but for whatever reason are absent on the night of Sunday, April 10th, 2011.
People who are away from their usual residence should fill out a form from wherever they are on the night. Question 7 (part b) allows you to state where you normally live.
Ireland has been collecting censuses of population since 1821, and the data collected is both historically important and of practical use for future policy makers.
“It provides knowledge so that public resources can be shared evenly across the country and to ensure that services at local level are relevant to all the people who live there” a statement from the Central Statistics Office read.
It also directly affects the number of TDs a constituency are allotted, with the Irish Constitution stipulating that there be a TD for every 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Forms are available in 21 languages excluding Irish and English, and a Braille or audio version can also be requested by contacting the Central Statistics Office on 1890 2011 11.
Further contact details along with much more information about the census in general are available on census.ie.