TEHRAN — Some 46.4 percent of Iranians, constituting more than 11 million families, went for online census which started on September 24 nationwide, IRNA news agency reported.

The online census was very well received as the Statistical Center of Iran had expected some 8.881 million families to participate considering the number of people who have access to the internet but the final results went beyond expectations.

As announced by the center, 11,067,137 families representing 37,171,307 individuals participated in the online census.

Regarding the extent of participation Semnan province with 80 percent of its population filling out the online questionnaire came in first with some 173,500 families accounting for 540,500 individuals taking part in the census, secretary for Semnan province census headquarters Reza Abdollahzadeh said on Saturday. 

Abdollahzadeh went on to say that with regards to the proportion of the population of Semnan province to the whole country’s the province has the highest level of participation and Bushehr province also holds the second place right after Semnan with 73.55 percent participation.

The first phase of the national census over which data was collected online by referring to a website was held nationwide from September 24 to October 15 but got extended twice for six more days until October 21.

In the second phase which started on October 21 surveyors are visiting the rest of the households door-to-door to fill out forms for those who did not use the website.

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 owing to the online services.

The new online data gathering system is both time and cost efficient. The users who had provided their information using the web-based services are given a tracking code which are supposed to keep to give to the surveyors in the second phase.

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.

MQ/MG