[France, 1990, Enumerator Instructions]
[Translated by Amelia E. Daniels, Minnesota Population Center, 2005]
French Republic
General Census of the 1990 Population
Manuel of the Census/Censeur Agent
Insee
Preface
For almost two centuries, the general census of the population redraws the demographic, economic, and social evolution of the country, from the smallest village to the greatest metropolis.
More than ever, the census is in close touch with the reality of the moment. Numerous European countries are going to undertake this on similar dates. The questionnaire assigns greater importance to the dominating concerns of unemployment and unstable job situations. Decentralization increases the need for statistical information from local communities. The census reveals and measures some major changes. Thus have we learned that from 1962 to 1982, the number of salaried farmers grew from 57% and that the population of the Essonne department (county) doubled.
The experience gained from preceding census shows that the population reserves a gives a favorable welcome to census agents. Even so, the task is not always easy: some people fear opening their door to strangers or loath filling out forms. Others are rarely at home. Good communication, perseverance and the right approach must be shown time and time again.
In order to promote your work, the INSEE has led an information campaign far more intense than in the past. The forms are more attractive and easy to read than before. At any moment, you can count on advice and the support from the delegate of the INSEE, as well as help from city councils.
However, the quality of the census depends, above all, on you. This manual is a guide designed to let you do to the best of your ability the work which is being entrusted to you. Thank you for having accepted to participate in this, the 32nd census of the French population.
[Sommaire]
[Table of Contents]
[Translated by Amelia E. Daniels]
[Your Work: place, content and definitions]
1.1 The census: its objectives, how it works, its legal framework p. 6
1.2. You are responsible for the census in one part of the municipality p.7
1.3 Taking a census of all dwellings p. 9
1.4 Buildings to survey or "Apartment buildings according to the definition of the census" p. 12
1.5 Buildings not to count p.15
1.6 The buildings and dwellings of the district AD08 p. 18
1.7 Taking a census of all the inhabitants, French or foreigners, alive at midnight, March 5th p. 20
1.8 General organization of the census in the district p. 20
1.9 Recognition of the districts (before March 1st) p. 22
[The distribution of the questionnaires to the inhabitants]
2.1 Beginning of the collection p. 26
2.2 The first round of questionnaire distributions p. 27
2.3 Handing over questionnaires to the inhabitants p. 30
2.4 Interest of the rounds in the day p. 34
2.5 Difficulties in finding access to some buildings p. 34
2.6 People who are resistant p. 35
2.7 People who are difficult to contact p. 38
2.8 A Precious tool: envelope number 48 p. 41
2.9 People who need help filling out the forms p. 42
2.10 Neighborhoods with large proportions of foreigners p. 42
2.11 Dwellings which are not principal residences p. 43
[Retrieval of questionnaires]
[p.3]
3.1 The need to check the questionnaires p. 46
3.2 Two checks to fulfill on the FL p. 47
3.3 Page 4 of the FL and Page 4 of the DIC p. 48
3.4 Two checks to perform on the BI p. 50
3.5 Possible difficulties p. 51
3.6 People absent from home for professional or personal reasons p. 52
3.7 Notes on the apartment buildings (in towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants) p. 53
[Operations to perform after the end of the collection]
4.1 What you should have in the collection and what to do next. p. 56
4.2 Steps to perform on each packet p. 57
4.3 Rules to follow completely p. 57
4.4 First step: classify the questionnaires p. 57
4.5 Second step: complete the questionnaires p. 60
4.6 Third step: number the questionnaires p. 61
4.7 Fourth step: fill in the district form p. 65
4.8 Leaving the documents at the city council p. 65
[Annexes]
1 - Census of independent rooms p. 82
2 - Census of mobile homes p. 84
3 - Census of hotels, inns, family hotels, furnished houses, etc. p. 86
4 - Individual arrangements for census agents whose sector is not part of the center of town p. 88
5- Census of the farms p. 92
Index p. 95
[p. 4]
[Aide-Memoire: calendar of your work]
Before March 4th:
- Recognition of your sector
- Training
March 5th : census of the houses and mobile homes in your area
Starting March 5th:
In the district(s) of your area, a visit of all the buildings and all the dwellings of which they are made up.
Each building made up of two dwellings or more will be the item of a DIC (dossier d'immeuble collectif) - collective building file.
A building made up of a single lodging will be surveyed, but no DIC will be established for this apartment building.
Buildings not made up of dwellings (don't forget to check this) will not undertake the census.
Each dwelling will be an item:
- on your notebook of the rounds;
- on a housing form
If the dwelling is occupied as the main residence, you will give to the occupants :
-the housing form (FL)
- the information pamphlet
-an individual form per resident
If the dwelling is unoccupied, you yourself will fill out the housing form (pages 1 and 4).
You will inform the city council or the delegate of the INSEE without delay of all difficulties (refusals, someone impossible to contact) or individual case.
Next you will retrieve all the distributed FL and all the BI, while checking the answers of the residents. On page 4 of each DIC, you will take care of the answers to three questions relative to the apartment building.
Between March 6 and March 9:
You will have the first interview with the delegate of the INSEE. After that, you will have at least one interview with him each week.
March 15 at the latest:
You will turn in the set of notes about the buildings for your sector to the INSEE delegate. This statement is not to be filled in except in the towns of more than 10,000 people.
As soon as you will have collected all the forms:
Inside each district, you will have to classify, complete and number the documents (DIC, FL, BI). Then you will fill out each of the district forms.
Finally, you will bring back to the city council the packet of documents organized in that way.
[p. 5]
[Your work: place, content and definitions]
[p. 6]
1.1 The Census: its objectives, how it works, its legal framework
a) The objectives
Refer to the information pamphlet (printed item number 3).
First objective: determine the population of each of the 36,500 towns.
In order to reach this goal, we have an individual form (BI, printed item number 2) for each resident to fill out. At the end of the step, counting the BI collected is just enough to obtain the population figures.
The second objective of the census is to describe the demographic composition of the town, the department (county), the region, and the entire country. For that, we make the most of the answers to questions figuring on the BI.
Likewise, the housing form (FL, printed material number 1) establishes for each dwelling, occupied or not, permission to describe the conditions of that dwelling.
b) How the census of a town works
The expanse of the town is divided into sectors. Each sector is allocated to a census agent, who is going to visit all the dwellings which are found there in order to have the forms filled out.
c) The legal framework
As required by mandate section 89-274 of April 26, 1989 (Journal Officiel du 4 mai 1989), the census is required for all people residing in France.
The law concerning secret nature of the statistics (law modified from June 7, 1951) commands you as your formal duty to hold as strictly confidential the information which you know of because of your functions as a census agent. In other words, it is forbidden for you to duplicate the printed documents.
[p. 7-8 omitted]
[p. 9]
1.3 Taking a survey of all the dwellings
The housing category is mentioned on page 1 of the housing form (FL), which corresponds to how the dwelling in question is used.
a) Principal residences: category 1
It is the largest majority: 83% of the dwellings surveyed in 1982. One person, or a group of people, lives there for the greatest part of the year.
One fundamental principal:
all people residing for the greatest part of the year in a dwelling must be included in the census for that dwelling, which constitutes his main residence. This person must not be counted in another dwelling.
Example: M. Durand lives in Chateauneuf and owns a house in a village of the Var department (county), where he is going to spend several weekends as well as part of his vacation. He must fill out the census in Chateauneuf where his dwelling will be classified as his main residence, and where he himself and each of the people living with him will fill out a BI. His house in the Var department will be classified as a secondary residence, and no BI will be filled out for it.
Comment: The principal residence is the dwelling where people live regularly. The census is only interested in this fact. Some people vote, or pay their taxes, in another community: we don't account for those details.
The classification of the questionnaires FL-BI in the case of a main residence: The FL serves as a cover for the resident's BI (individual form).
Example of a dwelling occupied by a couple with a child:
[refer to picture on p. 9]
Comment: As a rule, these are the residents who fill out the FL and the BIs.
[p. 10]
b) Unoccupied dwellings: categories 2, 3, 4
Since there are no occupants, it is the census agent's job to fill out the FL himself (pages 1 and 4), which will contain no BI.
Category 2: dwellings (or independent rooms) used occasionally
These are dwellings used during one part of the year for professional reasons.
It is becoming more and more common for two spouses to work in towns rather far away from one another. Sometimes, one of them finds himself or herself forced to use a second dwelling for part of the week. At the time of the census, we attribute to the spouses the same main residence. The second dwelling is classified in category 2: "dwelling (or independent room) occasionally used."
Many merchants and artisans make use of the back of their store as a dwelling, which they use from time to another, for example in order to eat their meals and live their for several days of the week. This dwelling does not qualify as their principal residence. Such a dwelling will be classified in category 2.
Let's define two other examples of dwellings from this category:
- a representative from a department (county) from a rural area uses an apartment in Paris in close proximity to the Palais-Bourbon, which he occupies during the parliamentary sessions, his main residence being situated in his district ;
-a multinational business has a branch in Lyon, and owns some apartments in this town which it uses to lodge its executives who have been transferred there.
Category 3: secondary residences
Secondary residences are dwellings used for weekends, leisure time, or vacations. This category consists of country homes, villas and vacation homes, etc. You will classify as well rented furnished dwellings (or to be rented) for tourists seasons in seaside resorts, winter sports resorts, etc. which includes the case of time-share property.
Category 4: Vacant dwellings
These are dwellings not occupied at the time of the census and applicable to one of the following cases:
-for sale
-for rent
-already allocated to a buyer or a renter, pending occupation
-awaiting payment of succession, judicial liquidation, etc.;
-saved by an employer for future use for the benefit of his employees;
-saved by the owner for future use, for example for the benefit of relatives or friends;
-kept vacant and without any precise reason by the owner
[p. 11]
c) Trailers and other mobile homes: category 3
Trailers, strictly speaking, are not dwellings. They should however be surveyed, as long as they take the place of a principal residence.
[refer to pictures on p.11, top-right]
Examples: - Gypsies park on a sidewalk:
- workers are housed in a trailer on a work site and have no principal residence elsewhere
Census modalities of trailers and mobile abodes are shown in annex 2.
d) Temporary building structures and makeshift dwellings
Examples: - a skiff in place in order to shelter the works of a work site:
-a shanty town boat
-a shelter turned into a dwelling.
They are considered as dwellings. However, we do not make them take the census except if these abodes take the place of a principal residence for their occupants. The dwellings will thus be classified always in category 1 and their occupants will fill out the BIs.
e) Independent rooms sometimes constitute dwellings
You will refer to annex 1.
f) A professional place is not a dwelling and must not be included in the census.
Example: inside an apartment building made up initially of 12 dwellings, one of them has been transformed into a medical office and has lost all use as a home. You will survey only 11 dwellings and thus you will only establish 11 FL.
[p. 12]
[Translated by Amelia E. Daniels]
1.4 Buildings to be counted or "Residential Buildings according to the definition of the Census"
A residential building, according to the census, is a building which is made up of at least one dwelling whatever the original purpose or design of this building.
Examples:
- a private house
- a HLM (low-income housing) with 50 dwellings
- a farmhouse where a farming family lives
- a village school where the instructor lives
- a theater out of which the concierge makes a dwelling
a) If it's about a building made up of two dwellings or more, you will create a collective residential building file (DIC, printout number 4), which will serve as a folder for all the housing documents and the corresponding individual forms.
[picture of DIC and picture of the corresponding forms]
[p. 13]
Very common individual situations
1. Some buildings are made up of several staircases. This is the case, for example, for significant HLM units. You will count it as a residential building, and you will establish a DIC for each of the staircases. You will apply this rule even if the building has only one single entrance door to the outside. This situation is very common in old structures. This rule results in the division of the building vertically into several "residential dwellings according to the definition of the census".
[picture of building divided into three parts illustrates this point in the center of the page; the following words are written on the three sections:]
- left-hand staircase, 1st residential building - 1 DIC
- center staircase, 2nd residential building - 1 DIC
- right-hand staircase, 3rd residential building - 1 DIC
2. Even limited to one staircase, some buildings are made up of more than 60 dwellings, the maximum number of dwellings which can be registered on pages 2 and 3 or the DIC.
In the event, for example, that one staircase covers 10 floors with 8 dwellings each (the basement not counted as a dwelling), you will define it, according to the census definition, as:
- a first residential building in reference to the entire number of dwellings on floors 1-7, thus making a total of 56 dwellings for which you will create 1 DIC and 56 FL;
- a second residential building in reference to the entire number of dwellings on floors 8-10, thus making a total of 24 dwellings for which you will create 1 DIC and 24 FL.
[p. 14]
b) If the structure is made up of a dwelling and that one alone, it is counted as a residential building by the census definition, but you will not create a DIC since the FL will suffice to describe the structure.
Note: at the back of the census manual, in the packet of questionnaires relating to a district could be accompanied with collective building files (containing the corresponding FL with their BI) and some FL (with their BI) without DICs representing the residential buildings of a single dwelling.
Very common special cases
Some private houses are found juxtaposed. If this is the case, for example, of some miner's terraced houses in some mining regions, in pavilions constructed in the new towns of the great suburbs, or in some villas on the sea front. You will consider that there are just as many distinct residential buildings according to the census definition as there houses, since all these houses are independent. No DIC will be created, except if one of these houses has been split into two dwellings.
[See picture on bottom of page 14 of several houses in a row, all juxtaposed]
[p. 15]
1.5 / Structures not to be counted
a) The structures which you have checked have no dwelling and are not residential buildings according to the census definition.
Do not count them. No printed form is filled out for them.
Examples:
- this factory contains no dwelling. [See picture, upper right-hand corner]
Important!: You must check to make sure. Many industrial, commercial, or administrative establishments do contain dwellings for those in charge or the guard, and you have to count those.
- this house has fallen into ruin.
Important! Some residential buildings in the path of destruction are "taken over", and their occupants must be counted.
- this stadium is not to be counted.
Important! The person in charge of its maintenance is sometimes housed on the site.
[p. 16]
- this residential building should not be counted because it is not completed.
Rule: A structure should not be considered complete, that is, to be counted, except if each of the following two cases is true:
-the electrical connections are made.
- the buildings can be inhabited immediately.
Special case:
Some people who occupy their dwelling before the completion of the construction work, for example, by "camping" in one room. You will include them in the census as well as the building.
However, you will not count the other dwellings of the residential building, which are unoccupied.
b) The cultural/ethnic communities
In 1982, we had taken a census of :
- 260,000 military men and women in barracks or military camps
- 520,000 boarding students of an educational institution
- 60,000 people in prison or integrated (into the society)
- 200,000 people working from their home