In the first three days of the Digital Census, almost 1.3 million people from 458,650 households have already completed the virtual questionnaire with “incredible participation”, while more than 7,800 query calls were received on the free help line, reported today the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).
The 2022 National Censuswhich for the first time in history has a mixed modality -virtual and territorial-, debuted on Wednesday with the digital form to answer questions in advance, and has already reached an “incredible participation”, assured Marco Lavagna, director of Indec.
A total of 1,288,000 people living in 568,885 homes entered the official site www.censo.gob.ar and accessed the questionnaire of 61 questions that are answered in less than 15 minutes, of which 458,650 completed it (80.6% of the total).
On the first day alone, more than 200,000 households were registered.for which the head of the Indec remarked the “good reception” of the new virtual modality and said that “the operation is already a success”.
“We are offering different tools to citizens so that they can exercise their right to be counted, and we are seeing a uniform participation of the population in each province and that accounts for a federal Census,” Lavagna said Thursday at the Census presentation at the Misiones province.
Until May 18 at 8, all the inhabitants of Argentina will be able to self-census on the official site, lor that will save time for both the population and the census takers.
This first virtual instance will be completed with the traditional face-to-face tour next Wednesday, May 18, when census takers will visit more than 15 million homes and collect information from some 46.8 million people throughout the country, according to estimates.
People who complete the form virtually will receive a receipt in their email box with a six-digit alphanumeric code that must be presented or said verbally to the census taker to finalize the registration and verify that the entire population, households and dwellings of Argentine territory have been counted.
The online questionnaire must be answered by a person on behalf of all the inhabitants of the dwellingso it is recommended “to bring together the entire family” when completing the data in order to meet the objective of “counting, without omitting or duplicating, each and every one of the people,” explained the INDEC.
According to the importance of the censusLavagna stated days ago that he defines “structural characteristics of who we are, how we are, our cultural and ethnic differences.”
“Censuses allow us to have this basic information to improve the quality of decisions, improve public policies and those of the private sector,” said the director of Indec, providing details of this statistical operation that is carried out every decade but that had to be postponed for two years. due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Focused on the recognition of the diversity of the Argentine populationthis edition included a question on the self-perception of gender identity and the scope of the query on ethnic self-recognition (indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants) was extended to the entire population.
Since the launch of the Digital Census last Wednesday More than 7,800 calls were answered at the toll-free help desk, sMore than 3,000 emails were received and more than 650 queries were answered on social networks through direct messages, they indicated from the Indec.
Some frequently asked questions
Some of the doubts of the population that were repeated the most on social networks referred to where the children of separated parents should be registered, if they have to register with the address that appears on the DNI and what happens if a mistake is made when completing the formula.
The Indec explained that the Children of separated parents must be counted in the dwelling they live in 4 or more days a week, and if they spend the same number of days in both households, they are counted in only one.
Regarding which address to indicate, all the people they have to be registered according to their usual place of residence and it is not necessary that it coincide with the one that appears on the DNI, indicated the agency.
In case of making a mistake with any information or forgetting to list a member of the household once the digital questionnaire has already been sent, the completion code should not be entered on May 18 and instead you have to do the interview again in person, so this last form will be taken into account.
Another frequently asked question relates to the security of the information provided, which is protected by “a strict computer security protocol”, and is stored on Arsat’s servers under “data anonymization, encryption and governance techniques”, according to Law 17,622, Decree 3,110/70 and the INDEC Resolution 181/2020, according to the official census website.
In addition, the head of the Indec clarified that the request for the identity document to access the Digital Census questionnaire, it is only requested to verify that the person responding is a real person and not a robot, and “It is not registered anywhere, it is not associated”.
“The first step is to identify the document number and the date of birth to see if you are older or not. Once that information has been validated, it is nowhere to be found and only then do you enter the census card that does not include the number of document,” he added, underlining: “The paper ID or the Internet ID does not have an identification number, so it remains anonymous and is not recorded.
The only mechanism by which information will be requested the inhabitants to answer the Census will be through the official websitehe or when the census takers pass through all the homes in the country on May 18.
From the Indec they remarked that text messages will not be sent, calls will not be made or they will communicate by any other means to request data.
To answer questions about the census, the free line 0800-345-2022 was enabled which is available from Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Assistance can also be requested through the email [email protected].
