A decennial population and housing census has been taken in Italy since 1861, based on the conventional methodology of complete field enumeration. All information was collected and processed on a complete basis. Only a long form was traditionally used and all the information collected was processed without making use of any sampling techniques.

For the 2011 census, a number of factors raised questions about the appropriateness of continuing to rely on the conventional methodology. A major change though only applying to the largest municipalities will be the use of sampling techniques for the collection of socio-economic information. This strategy implies a shift towards the production of estimations concerning the socio-economic set of variables included in EU Regulation. These estimations will be produced by using a long form for a sample of households. Two enumeration forms will be used in municipalities with 20,000 or more inhabitants (and in all provincial capitals): a short form, in order to collect data on the demographic features of the whole resident population, and a long form, designed for a sample of households and including demographic topics as well as socioeconomic variables.

Paper presented at the joint UNECE/Eurostat meeting on Population and Housing Censuses, Geneva, 28-30 October 2009.