Romania’s census slowed by shortage of census takers

More than 1,300 census takers are needed in over 20 counties, and there are only six days left in which they can go door to door and get people to answer the questionnaire.

Many localities in roughly half of Romania’s counties have yet to receive a visit from census takers at all so far. Between May 31 and July 17, census takers can visit those who have not filled out the questionnaire online. Those who filled out the questionnaire wrongly are also visited by census takers.

Roughly 900 census takers are needed in Bucharest alone, while Timiș, Brașov, and Cluj counties need between 60 and 80 census takers. Counties like Sibiu, Constanța, Mureș, Maramureș, and Dolj, among others, are also in need of census takers.

The difficulty involved in completing the census questionnaire apparently discouraged some of the people who wanted to work as census takers. Many of them also quit due to the heavy workload or the modest pay, according to Economica.net.

Census takers are paid according to the number of questionnaires they manage to fill. Each answered questionnaire gets them RON 7 (EUR 1,42) for the section dedicated to individuals. Helping someone fill out the section of the questionnaire dealing with housing earns census takers RON 3,5 (EUR 0,71).

The rates for both sections are higher when census takers have to conduct their visits in remote towns or villages. In this case, they get RON 9 for individuals and RON 5 for the housing sections of the questionnaire.

To remedy the situation, local authorities in cities affected by the shortage have set up census centers where people can go to receive guidance on how to fill out the census questionnaire. Those who were not yet visited by census takers can also go to fill out the questionnaire in city halls.

The National Institute for Statistics published amap where people can fill out the questionnaire. The centers are open on weekends as well. A separate list features the census centers that have been set up in Bucharest.

(Photo source: Octav Ganea | Inquam Photos)