The Census is compulsory based on the Act No 332/2020 Sb, on the 2021 Population and Housing Census. (Translator's note: “Sb” stands for the Collection of Laws of the Czech Republic.) All persons with a permanent residence or temporary residence for over 90 days and persons who have been granted asylum in the Czech Republic (or who have been granted subsidiary protection or temporary protection) are obliged to get counted. It includes also other persons who are in the decisive moment (midnight from Friday 26 March to Saturday 27 March 2021) present in the territory of the Czech Republic.

Only foreigners staying in the Czech Republic for less than 90 days (e.g. tourists) and foreigners enjoying privileges of the diplomatic corps and immunity are not obliged to get counted.

All foreigners who have a permanent or temporary residence in the Czech Republic for over 90 days (regardless of whether they are currently in Czechia or not) are obliged to get counted. You must also fill in the form if you have been granted an asylum or you have stayed in our territory at midnight from 26th to 27th March 2021. The Census does not apply to diplomats and foreigners who are staying in the Czech Republic for less than 90 days (e.g. tourists). 

In other words:
1. Everyone who has a registered stay in the Czech Republic for over 90 days or has been granted an asylum in the Czech Republic (or rather had it at the decisive moment at midnight from 26th March to 27th March 2021) must get counted. It does not matter where such person lives in the world, what his/her citizenship is or where he/she is registered to stay abroad.
2. Everyone who is present in our territory at the decisive moment (at midnight from 26th March to 27th March 2021) gets counted, unless he/she is a diplomat or tourist present only for a short time (up to 90 days) in the Czech Republic. It does not matter whether he/she has a registered stay in the Czech Republic.

All citizens of the Czech Republic, who have a permanent residence here, are obliged to get counted. Citizens who do not have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, but in fact live in the Czech Republic at the decisive moment (midnight from 26th March to 27th March 2021) are also obliged to get counted; for example, they have returned from abroad and have not yet registered to stay.

In other words, every citizen who has a permanent residence registered in the Czech Republic (or, more precisely, had it at midnight from 26th March to 27th March 2021) must get counted. It does not matter where such a person lives in the world, what other citizenship he/she has, or where he/she is registered to stay abroad. It applies to the majority of Czech citizens living abroad, since very few people officially end their permanent residence when they move from the Czech Republic. The duty to get counted in the Census does not apply to citizens living abroad who have officially ended their permanent residence in the Czech Republic.

Therefore, if you live abroad and do not have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic or you will not be present in our territory at the decisive moment, you do not have to fill in the Census form. If you live abroad but still have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, you will have to fill in the Census form.

Only electronic forms will be available abroad. The distribution and collection of paper forms will not take place abroad.

The Census serves all of us. It is hard to imagine that a society could function without having comprehensive information about itself. That is why censuses have been carried out in different forms since the ancient times, all around the world, from the poorest to the most economically advanced countries. We carry out censuses so that data on the whole population, its distribution, demographic, social, and economic characteristics, structure and way of housing of households are available, that is in mutual relationships from the nationwide perspective as well as in the smallest territorial detail. This information cannot be obtained in any other way. Results later help in many areas – e.g. for planning of transport, capacities of health establishments or kindergartens, updating of background materials for maps of areas with significant risk of flooding, preparation of territorial plans, or at fire responses.

Only data that cannot be obtained in any other way are collected through the census forms. A large part of the data needed for the 2021 Census is taken directly from the state’s registers, which is why we will only be asking for about half of the data than on previous census forms.

The Census cannot yet be done solely from existing administrative data sources. A dwelling (flat) register is missing. State databases also do not contain all the required information about education, economic activity and employment, commuting, addresses of usual residence, school or workplace locations. It is not possible to obtain data on the composition of households from the registers (for example, households of the elderly, households of single parents, etc.).

The Census is compulsory (it is a statutory duty). Surveyed data, as governed by binding European regulations, have to be obtained by a nationwide survey/census. The value of the census lies in acquiring of information from the whole population as at the same moment. In case of a voluntary participation, results of the census would not be reliable and of sufficient quality. It would limit the extent of possibility of its use in a very negative way – for example, in decision making about capacities of kindergartens or retirement homes, when analysing flood areas or planning transport services. Should only part of the population fill in census forms, there would be a risk that the census would not contain data for all municipalities. Mayors, regional enterprises, or operators of local services would thus lose highly necessary data for their activity.

It depends on the number of persons in a household and on knowledge of all necessary pieces of data how much time you will spend filling in the census form. On average, it takes 10 minutes to fill in the common part of the census form for a dwelling (flat) and a household and as for the second part it takes 5 minutes per person. It is faster to fill in the online census form thanks to its autocomplete function and automatic displaying of questions based on filled in data (for example, a question about employment is not displayed for a child).

You will fill in one census form for a household, which contains questions about housing, composition of the household and all of its members. You can fill in either an electronic form (on the website or in the mobile application) or a paper form.

The census form can also be filled in for other persons with their consent. However, you need to know the situation in the household and also required personal data of its members. For example, their name, birth certificate/identification number (in Czech: rodné číslo) or number of their identity card issued in the Czech Republic (e.g. ID card or passport), and date of birth and information relevant to the section for personal information in the form (e.g. first place of residence after birth, information about education or employment).

You can also help somebody else (who is not able to do it himself/herself) fill in the online census form.

You can fill in the electronic census form (questionnaire) anywhere where there is a connection to the Internet. If you do not have this possibility, a household member of yours, who is present in the Czech Republic, can fill in the data on your behalf (either in the electronic or paper census form), provided that he/she knows the situation of the household and also the required personal data, for example, your name, birth certificate/identification number (in Czech: rodné číslo) or number of your identity card issued in the Czech Republic (e.g. ID card or passport), and your date of birth and information relevant to the section for personal information in the form (e.g. your first place of residence after birth, information about education or employment).

Questions about nationality and religion are optional; therefore, you can fill them in according to your own belief or leave them blank. All other questions are mandatory.

Besides Czech, the electronic census form is available in seven languages (English, German, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Romany). You can easily switch between languages at any stage of filling in the form.

Printed census forms (questionnaires) are available only in Czech. Upon request (from the Census Officer or at the Contact Point), printed translations of the forms are also available in 7 languages (English, German, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Romany). These translations serve as an aid for filling in the original Czech form.

Translations of the paper census form (questionnaire) can also be downloaded at scitani.cz/paper-census.

So-called usual place of residence is surveyed by the Census. That is the place where you actually live and where your household or your family is. The address of your permanent residence that is written in your ID is not important for the purposes of the Census.

Fill in the address of your usual residence. It is the place where you have actually lived for a long time and where you have your household or family. For that, it is not decisive where you are registered for permanent residence or whether, for example due to work or study, you spend most of the week in another place.

For example, if a student lives in a university residence hall, but has a close relationship with his/her parents, commutes to be with them during the weekends or holidays and still is part of the common household, then he/she should get counted as a member of the common household with his/her parents on their address. If a student already lives without his/her parents, makes his/her own living, and commutes to his/her parents rather to visit them, he/she should get counted at the university residence hall or another actual place of his/her residence.

Fill in the data about your commuting to work or school according to whether work or education from home will still be standard for you after anti-epidemic measures end (so-called “new normal”) or not. If you already know now that you will continue to work from home, answer according to the address where you live. It can be assumed with most students that distance studies will shift from their homes back to classes or lecture rooms after the epidemic ends. In that case, answer the questions according to the address of your school.

You can find basic help directly in the census form. A detailed help is on the website at scitani.cz/paper-census. We will also gladly provide you with information on the Infoline (+420) 274 056 789 or by e-mail at dotazy@scitani.cz. The staff at the Census Contact Point can also advise you how to fill in the census form (questionnaire) in case you need it.

With regard to anti-epidemic measures, contact of census officers (enumerators) with the population will be limited to distribution of census forms (during the handover they will not provide information regarding filling in the forms).

The census form for a sub/leased dwelling (flat) or a house is filled in by a person or a household that is living in it.

Fill in the form for a cottage or chalet and other houses with a registration number only if you actually live in one of them.

During the Census, each person or household will fill in the form only for the dwelling (flat) or building in which they actually live, regardless of ownership of the property. If you own a cottage or chalet, but no one lives in it (i.e. it is used for recreation only), you do not fill in any census form for it. Houses with a descriptive number intended for living, which are used only for recreation, will be counted by census officers (enumerators) as unoccupied houses.

The Czech Republic carries out the 2021 Census pursuant to the Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses. The 2021 Census is also fully in accordance with the legal regulations on personal data protection, especially the GDPR [Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)].

When we process the provided data, we take great care to protect privacy. We only process personal data in a lawful manner and for the purposes provided for by the law (statutory purposes). We thus comply with all the principles of personal data processing specified in the Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation, i.e. lawfulness, fairness, and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability. In accordance with the principle of minimisation, we store personal data only for as long as it is necessary. All identification data are (after scanning and verification of quality of census forms and matching of necessary information from the databases of the state with filled in data) permanently destroyed. Paper census forms are shredded according to strict security standards and personal data in electronic form are securely erased. Detailed information about the processing of personal data is available at scitani2021/privacy.

We will use all the data only to process and publish aggregate statistical results (numbers, shares, or averages).

All identification data are during the processing (i.e. after scanning and verification of quality of census forms and matching of necessary information from the databases of the state with filled in data) anonymised and after the processing they are permanently destroyed. Paper census forms are shredded according to strict security standards.

The results of the Census will not contain any personal data. They will only be published in an aggregated form (as a summary) (numbers, shares, or averages), which does not make identification of natural persons possible. It is one of the basic principles of official statistics.

You have to provide your identity information to fill in the census form. It is because it has to be ensured that everybody gets counted only once. It is important for the quality of the results. Without personal identification, it also would not be possible for the required information directly from state databases to be matched with the census forms and to thus reduce the amount of surveyed information by half. Results of the Census are anonymous. They are always only aggregate (summary) statistical data (numbers, shares, or averages) and it is impossible to identify a specific person from them.