Nose count will put jobless Estonians to work

TALLINN - On March 31 Estonia will begin its first housing and
population census since the restoration of independence nine years
ago.

The long-awaited survey had a tough battle during last year's budget
talks that decided government spending for this year. After
Parliament agreed to scrap the corporate income tax on Jan. 1, the
budget was squeezed, and many observers predicted the census would
have to be postponed until 2001.

In August, while the budget battle between the opposition parties and
the ruling three party coalition heated up, Rein Veetousme, director
general of the state's statistics office, said the census could be
postponed by a year. But he said the delay could increase costs by 10
million kroons ($666,667), because preparation would have to be
repeated.

The census was originally scheduled for Jan. 11, but last year
Finance Minister Mart Opmann postponed the population count until
this spring, claiming more time was needed because of the reshuffling
of officials in regional governments following the October 1999 local
elections .The last official census was conducted in 1989.

The estimated cost of the census is 160 million kroons. Estonia began
preparations in 1995. Currently, work includes personnel training,
compiling of training plans and materials and planning ways to inform
the population about the census both in Estonian and Russian.

The statistics office is hiring 7,000 unemployed persons to help
conduct the census. The temporary workers will be paid 4,000 kroons a
month to do door-to-door questioning and administrative work at
regional statistics centers.

According to the statistics office, the goal of the Population and
Housing Census is to provide the government and social institutions
with accurate statistics about Estonia's demographics, so that
officials and researchers can draft policies relevant to the current
economic and social situations.

The study is broken into two parts: individuals and housing.
Thirty-one questions asked of individuals have to do with marital and
employment status, religious affiliation, education level and main
source of income. Twelve questions pertain to location of residence
and the size of a household, for example.

The questionnaires were compiled according to recommendations of the
United Nations and the European Union.