TEHRAN — Some 5.16 million Iranian families constituting 17.4 million individuals chose web-based services to fill out census forms so far, the director of the Statistical Center of Iran, has said.

The online census which was supposed to end on October 15 has been agreed to extend for three more days, Omid-Ali Parsa said, IRIB reported on Saturday.

He further encouraged the public to take part in the online census as it helps to reduce expenses incurred by the door-to-door visits of the surveyors.

Over the last national census some 65,000 census takers across the nation had to go door to door to collect information while the number have decreased to 25,000 this year, he highlighted.

Tehran, Markazi and Khuzestan are the provinces with the least level of participation, he added, asking people living in metropolises to help improve the participation rate by taking part in the online for filling.

“So far some 20 percent have taken part in the online census which makes us to hold the second place worldwide after Japan with 35 percent participation,” he pointed.

He went on to say that all the information people provide to the website are confidential and none of the other bodies have access to them.

Over the second phase of the census the surveyors will visit the rest of the households to fill out forms for those who did not use the website.

MQ/MG