2011 Czech census

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told the Chamber of Deputies that the cost of the census would be CZK 2.5 billion.

[4] The Census was conducted in two main steps: Counting paper sheets prior to processing were converted into electronic form and anonymized.

[5] Czech Statistical Office, to ensure that work of the census workers (delivery of forms, collecting completed forms and enter data into the computer) was conducted timely and accurately, hired the Czech Post Office to assign census workers.

By referendum, employees of municipal authorities, Czech Post and other volunteers became direct contractors with the CSO, as in the previous census.

Critics found that many postmen were forced to volunteer under the threat of layoffs, were paid less despite doing more work (90 CZK / h with 10% tax; externs hired CSO were supposed to pay several times higher), and that the activities were organized chaotically.

In the electronic form, respondents did not have to select from a list of churches or religions and were not limited to registered churches and religious societies Czech Statistical Office have not disclosed the methodology, so it is not publicly known how the statistical evaluation of data would account the unlisted religions/churches or "zaškrnout" options.

For example, in many places, census workers did not arrive in time that citizens have were asked to come so people were often repeatedly forced to wait unnecessarily and in a large queue at the post office, and even those who wanted to fill in a form over Internet.

Czech Post, however, reported that all work is carried out as standard, and the situation was stabilized by census commissioners.

[12][13][14] Preparation for the census was accompanied by controversy in the media, especially on webzines, blogs and Internet chat rooms, where many support the call for a boycott.

People with less education and with a lower socioeconomic position were less likely to believe the benefits of census data protection and guarantees.

[18] On 1 August 2011 the Constitutional Court rejected the complaint as unjustified, stressing that it was a legal obligation to complete the census in the current manner.

[19] On September 22, 2011, administrative proceedings were initiated against 233 persons who were found, after a thorough investigation, to have deliberately not met the legal obligation to complete the census.

Many Czech refused to answer the census question regarding religious association,[22] although there was an increase in the number of people identifying themselves as Jedis.

Municipalities sold off most of their public housing, thus significantly increasing the number of privately owned apartments.