Assessment of the quality of administrative data for use in a population census; Applying census test results in Indonesia

Abstract

BPS-Statistics Indonesia plans to carry out its seventh population census in 2020. In contrast to the traditional method in previous censuses, it will use administrative data obtained from the Ministry of Home Affairs combined with field enumeration. Individual information recorded in the administrative data will be used as the initial data source for the field enumeration as well as to ensure adequate coverage. These changes could be a step towards a register-based census in the future. Given the important role of register data in the upcoming Indonesian census, it is necessary to assess the quality of the administrative data which have been recorded by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze whether there are significant differences on selected individual variables between the data from the administrative source and the census test results. The census test was conducted in three selected villages using multi-mode data collection. The comparison of the selected individual variables and the statistical test results indicate that this administrative data is of sufficient quality to be used as the data source for a combined method census in Indonesia.