ABSTRACT
The first and so far, the only census in independent Ukraine was implemented in 2001. Since then, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has been updating the population data using administrative records, and living conditions or labour force data using sample surveys. With time, the quality of this data deteriorated since they do not consider unregistered migration which has intensified in recent years. The next census was initially planned for 2011 but continuously rescheduled (at the end of 2021 it was planned for 2023 but given the full-scale war it cannot be implemented). To find out why the government did not have a sense of urgency for the census, we performed 20 in-depth interviews with central and local officials. From these interviews, we can conclude that the main reasons for not conducting a census are that (1) officials do not need census data since they do not formulate policies based on that data nor do they perform policy impact assessment; (2) officials do not believe in the ability of Ukrainian statistical agency to collect high-quality data (their trust to statistics was further undermined by a quasi-census implemented at the end of 2019). The war has caused huge population changes making the need for a census more obvious. Due to the capacity constraints brought about by the war, the Ukrainian government is likely to implement simpler population estimates right after the war. However, it is important to conduct a proper census when it becomes possible – before switching to a registry-based census which was initially planned for 2030 but probably will be deferred too. The support of international organisations will be important for implementing a traditional census a few years after the war.
