TEHRAN - According to the preliminary data of the 2011 National Population and Housing Census of Iran, the country’s population has exceeded 75 million people, an official of the Statistical Center of Iran said on Wednesday.

Census Committee Chairman Taha Noorollahi told the Mehr News Agency that the field operations of the 2011 National Population and Housing Census of Iran were completed on Tuesday after 23 days of head counting.

He expressed the hope that the exact and comprehensive statistics of the census would be released in the near future.

According to the previous Iranian population and housing census, which was conducted in 2006, the country’s population stood at 70.4 million. Therefore, the new data shows that Iran’s population has increased by around 4.6 million over the past five years.

The field operations of the 2011 National Population and Housing Census of Iran commenced on Monday, October 24, 2011.

The 2011 National Population and Housing Census of Iran employed over 114,000 headquarters staff members, and 54,000 census enumerators conducted the field operations. 

They completed their task in 23 days through face-to-face interviews with members of about 20 million Iranian households and collected 70 data items on these households.

In order to trace the rapid demographic and social developments in Iranian society and to capture an updated image of it, it was decided to hold a census every five years instead of every ten years, as was previously the case. 

This was the seventh national census conducted by Iran since 1956, when the first national population and housing census was conducted by the Statistical Center of Iran.

The collection of basic information and demographic data on population characteristics, such as age, sex, migration, marital status, economic activity, and housing characteristics, including type of living unit, tenure, floor area, etc., are among the variables of the national population and housing census.

The pre-tests of the 2011 census were conducted in two stages during the years 2009 and 2010. In 2009, since the variables and implementation method of the pilot census were new, the pilot census was carried out in areas of both urban and rural localities across all provinces of the country.

However, in 2010, due to the need for a complete test of all stages of census implementation, the pilot census was conducted in four sub-provinces as well as in small areas of Tehran. The previous Iranian population and housing census was conducted in 2006, and its findings were published and are available at the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) library and on the SCI website.