[citation needed] Computers were installed in every provincial capital except Tibet; these were linked to a central processing unit at the Beijing office of the State Statistical Bureau.
Approximately five million census takers interviewed a representative of each household in China over the month beginning 1 July 1982.
[4] In 2004, the 1982 census results were used to create a series of postage stamps honoring the 100 then–most common surnames:[5] 李 王 张 刘 陈 杨 赵 黄 周 吴 徐 孙 胡 朱 高 林 何 郭 马 罗 梁 宋 郑 谢 韩 唐 冯 于 董 萧 程 曹 袁 邓 许 傅 沈 曾 彭 吕 苏 卢 蒋 蔡 贾 丁 魏 薛 叶 阎 佘 潘 杜 戴 夏 钟 汪 田 任 姜 范 方 石 姚 谭 廖 邹 熊 金 陆 郝 孔 白 崔 康 毛 邱 秦 江 史 顾 侯 邵 孟 龙 万 段 雷 钱 汤 尹 易 黎 常 武 乔 贺 赖 龚 文 Although praised as more accurate than the previous censuses in 1953 and 1964, the 1982 census suffered from irregularities as well.
[2] Another anomaly was that birth and death rates recorded by the census and household registration system differed but arrived at similar totals.
Both deaths and births were found to have been underreported to the registration system, to maintain rations allocated to the deceased and to avoid punishment for violations of the recent One-Child Policy.