All-Russian population census is put off till 2013

The all-Russian population census is postponed till 2013, the Russian State Statistics Committee reports.

The decision, made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev concerning postponement of the census is explained by the financial crisis and the project of the corresponding decree of Russian Government is under preparation now.

At present moment about two billion rubles of 18 billions pre-planed are already spent for organization of the census. This sum has been spent for organization of the test population census and for purchases of the necessary equipment, for elaboration of the questionnaires and for making the cartographic materials for more than 25 thousand cities, settlements and villages of Russia. The electronic database on every settlement of the country is already formed and the necessary software for automatic data processing and summarizing of the census’s totals is also nearly ready. The main part of the allocated means at the rate of 10 billion rubles has to be mastered in 2010 and at that the salaries of the personnel make up more than 80% of the sum.

The State Statistics Committee reports the purchased equipment, methods and cartographic materials will be used in 2013 and the questionnaires can be slightly modified