The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has begun the first stage of the 2008 Population Census: 2,000 poll-takers are informing 20% of the country’s households that they have been randomly selected to fill out a detailed questionnaire.

The purpose of the approximately-once-a-decade census is to collect information on the entire population of the country, including housing conditions and demographic, social and economic characteristics. The 2008 Population Census is an “integrated census,” which will be conducted using unique statistical methods developed by the CBS.



For the purpose of the census, the country has been divided into 3,000 geographic locations, each of which is divided into 20 areas, of up to some 50 households each. Within each location, 20% of the areas will be chosen, and the households living there will be interviewed. In towns of fewer than 300 people - of which there are some 700 - everyone will be interviewed.

The information garnered in this manner will be supplemented with administrative data based on the Residents Registry and phone interviews. The actual interviews, which are expected to take approximately 30-40 minutes each, will take place beginning Dec. 28, over a period of several weeks.

Families chosen to participate in the census are required to do so by law, though the CBS is hoping and expecting the public to cooperate willingly. To this end, the CBS has worked with the Ministry of Education to formulate a curriculum that will teach pupils about the importance and benefits of the census – and of public cooperation with the census-takers.

Some of the points to be emphasized in the curriculum are:

  • Data banks are needed for national and local planning purposes
  • The information is required for comparison with other countries and for use via international bodies.
  • The information can be used by the public to help it oversee government decisions.
  • The census is one way in which individual citizens can represent themselves and those like them as part of a tool that will be used to help the government come to decisions that will affect them.

Four educational kits have been prepared for junior high school and high school students: The CBS and Me – Israeli Trivia; Stories Behind the Stories; What is a Census? and Census in a Democratic Country.

Objections

The last national census, taken in 1995, met with opposition on two fronts, Halakhic and political. Jewish Law forbids the individual counting of Jews, but the fact that only a representative sampling will be “counted” this time should obviate objections on these grounds. Politically, the Zo Artzeinu anti-Oslo protest group led a call for a boycott of the national census in protest of the Oslo accords. The boycott was called off, in an attempt at national unity, after Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated.

Previous censuses have been taken in Israel in 1948, 1961, 1972, 1983 and 1995. Israel's population this past Rosh HaShanah, just over two months ago, stood at 7.337 million, including 75.5% Jews and 20.1% Arabs.