Bulgaria’s Cabinet approved on March 4 an additional 10.8 million leva (about 5.52 million euro) allocation to the National Statistical Institute for the national population census to be held in 2021.
The funding for staff was increased by more than 6.1 million leva, for support by 3.1 million leva and capital spending by 1.5 million leva, the government information service said.
Bulgaria’s national census in 2021 will cost an estimated 38.2 million leva (about 19.5 million euro), it emerged when the National Assembly approved the second reading of the Population and Housing Census Act on February 21.
The census will be held in two stages between January 22 and February 15 2021, as part of a process of each European Union member state holding a census that year.
The March 4 government statement said that activities related to the census begin in 2020, with the holding of a trial census this year to assess readiness.
The test census will involve various activities, including setting up a support centre, creation of district and municipal census commissions, recruitment of census-takers, training, and a communication strategy.
The census, conducted every 10 years, is aimed at providing information that is reliable, comprehensive and sufficiently detailed at territorial level on the number and structure of the population by gender, age, education, economic activity, profession, economic activity and other demographic, socio-economic and ethno-cultural characteristics, the government statement said.