Census in Ireland 2002

The census will take place on the night of Sunday 28th of April 2002.  On this night everybody who is in the state will be included in a Census Form, including people who are staying temporarily in a household, persons in communal establishments and persons on board vessels.

The forms are delivered during the month prior to Census Day and will be collected in the month following the census.

The census is a detailed stocktake of everybody who will be in the country on the night of Sunday April 28th. On this night everybody's details will be entered on a Census Form. The census counts everybody so that we know how many people are in the country and we can analyse any changes that have occurred since the previous population counts.

As well as being able to establish our population size, a number of different questions relating to households and individuals are asked in the census.
This allows us to find out things such as how people get to work, what sort of accommodation we live in, how many people are in each occupation group and lots more. Looking at the questions asked on the Census Form will give you an idea of what we will be able to tell when the results are published.

The forms are delivered and collected by Census Enumerators who will carry official identification and will be happy to assist you with any difficulties you may have.

Publication of results: The preliminary results of the 2002 Census will be published within 3 months of Census Day. All results of the 2002 Census will be made available within two years of Census Day.

The 2002 Census is the first census of the new millennium!
Commencing with 1841, censuses were held every ten years up to and including 1911. The ten year cycle was resumed with the 1926, 1936 and 1946 censuses.
Commencing with 1951 censuses have been held every five years. This five-year periodicity was broken in 1976 with the cancellation of the census planned for that year due to budgetary cutbacks. A census containing 6 questions was held in 1979.
The five-year periodicity was again broken when the 2001 Census was postponed until 2002 because of the foot and mouth disease situation at that time.

The Official Census Website is at http://www.cso.ie/census/