THE QUESTIONNAIRE

The questionnaire developed for the pilot census went through a review. A consultant from Statistics New Zealand worked on the questionnaires and talked with government ministries, various UN agencies, NGO's and other interested parties about content and format. Where changes were made, small field tests were carried out to confirm workability and acceptability. By January 2004, the questionnaires were ready to present to the Census Technical Committee and then to government agencies for formal acceptance. During that process, some minor changes were made, but the basic questionnaire was maintained.

Three types of questionnaires were used: one for households, one for institutions (prisons, orphanages, convents, hospitals and boarding schools) and one for hotels. This section refers only to the household questionnaire.

The household questionnaire was prepared in four languages: Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian and English. A copy of the English version is included in the Appendix of this paper.

The questionnaire was well designed. The format, wording and arrangement of questions received a great deal of attention. It was short, simple, easy to apply, and included most of the standard census questions and items. The purpose here is not to evaluate the questionnaire in detail, but it is important to mention that the data collected with it has proved to be extremely useful for a number or purposes. The usefulness of the data is a good indicator of the format adequacy and organization of the questionnaire and the relevance of the questions included. It is also important to highlight that, up to now, various data analyses have shown that most of the information is reliable. However, it is also important to recognize there is plenty of space for improvement and the questionnaire for the 2010 Census will be much better. Actually, several analyses of the data obtained with the questionnaire clearly show the need to modify the next census questionnaire and, especially, include additional questions.