LITHUANIA

1. Name and address of the organization responsible for the census:

Statistics Lithuania, Gedimino Av. 29, LT - 01500 Vilnius.

2. Population censuses conducted since 1945 (years):

1959, 1970, 1979, 1989 and 2001. The present description relates to the 2001 population census (conducted on 6 April).

3. Coverage of the census:

(a) Geographical scope: Whole country.

(b) Persons covered: The census included all permanent residents of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania and citizens of the Republic of Lithuania residing abroad, citizens of other states and aliens with permanent residence permits in the Republic of Lithuania and permanently residing within the territory of the Republic of Lithuania.

4. Reference period:

The week preceding the census (26 March – 1 April).

5. Main topics:

(a) Total population, by sex and age: yes

Economically active population by:

(b) Sex and age group: yes

(c) Industry: yes

(d) Occupation: yes

(e) Status in employment: yes

(f) Educational level: yes

(g) Hours of work: no

(h) Other characteristics: yes

Re (a): The age is determined in terms of age (number of complete years) at the moment of the census.

Re (h): The census also collected information on secondary workplace.

6. Concepts and definitions:

(a) Economically active population:  The economically active population comprises all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference period, were either employed or unemployed, according to the definitions given below.  Regular members of the armed forces and conscripts on military/civilian service are included.

(b) Employment: Considered as employed are all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the week preceding the census, did any kind of work for at least one hour and for which he/she was paid wages or salary in cash or in kind (food or other products), or had income (profit).

(c) Unemployment: Considered as unemployed are persons who: (i) in the week preceding the date of the census had no work for which they received pay in cash or in kind or had no income (profit); (ii) during the month preceding the date of the census were in active search of employment; (iii) during the next two weeks were ready to start work having found it.

7. Classifications used:

Only employed persons are classified by industry, by occupation and by status in employment.

(a) Industry: Respondents were requested to state the name and address of their workplace and to indicate the main economic activity of the enterprise. For coding this variable, the national version of NACE at the 4-digit level was used.

(b) Occupation: Based on the question “What is your occupation, work performed or position?”.  If the name of the occupation or work performed was not sufficiently clear, the respondent was asked to give a short description of the job.  For coding occupation, the national version of ISCO–88 at the 4-digit level was used.

(c) Status in employment: Based on the question “Which of the following employed are you?”.  For coding this variable, the following seven groups were used: employee; employer; own-account worker; family worker; member of producer's cooperative; conscript; other economically active.

(d) Level of education: For coding the population’s educational attainment, the following eleven levels of education were used: higher; college-type school; technicum; professional secondary; secondary; professional basic; basic; primary; not finished primary; literate (no schooling); illiterate. Links to ISCED-1997 have been established

8. Main differences compared with the previous census:

The data on economic characteristics from the 2001 and 1989 Population censuses are not comparable.  The uniformed classification, produced by Goskomstat USSR, was used for coding the 1989 census data whereas the national versions of the international classifications, NACE and ISCO–88, were used for coding industry and occupation data in the 2001 census.

9. Publication of the census results:

The first provisional results of the 2001 Population and Housing Census were announced in October 2001.  The main dissemination of the results (at April 2004) are:

-      Paper publications: thematic volumes (10); small area statistics - rural localities (10); main data by municipalities (60);

-      Internet (general information on the census, metadata, main census data, 15 press releases);

-      CD-Rom with the aggregated database and PC-AXIS software;

-      Information on user request (tailor-made information);

-      Output database on Internet (as from 2005).

The organization responsible for the dissemination of the census results is Statistics Lithuania, Gedimino Av. 29, LT - 01500 Vilnius (website address: www.stat.gov.lt).