Errors in the Central China province and in other areas have resulted in a five-day delay of door-to-door information collecting for the fifth national census, which began on November 1 and was scheduled to last 10 days.

In Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, 2 million people have not been registered in the census at all, and in many counties the death rate has been calculated as higher than the birth rate - a statistical impossibility.

The State Council is taking the matter quite seriously and issued an urgent circular last week reiterating its census policies.

Under the rules, data collected should be treated as confidential and not used to weigh up the administrative merits of officials.

The policies state that immigrants who have not been officially registered as temporary residents where they are staying will not face charges after the census has been carried out. Under State regulations, immigrants must register at local departments when moving to other areas.

Not all policies and regulations have been well implemented at grass-root levels, said Liu Changsong, deputy director of the Fifth National Census Office. Although the door-to-door collections will now take a further five days to complete, other major sectors of the census will be carried out as scheduled, according to Liu, and the census will be finished by the end of next year.

(China Daily 11/15/2000)