TEHRAN – The national population and housing census is underway across the country.

The census began on Saturday. Some 30,000 census takers nationwide go door to door to collect information.

The number of census takers has been cut to half this year owing to the web-based census which was carried out from September 24 to October 21.

Some 46.4 percent of people, constituting more than 11 million families, went for online census.

The census is being conducted every five years in Iran. The first nationwide census was held in 1956. This is the first time Iran is using online services to collect information.