As from 1870 census of population is being executed in Hungary at every 10th year. By the end of the 19th as well as at the beginning of the 20th century the frequency of information obtained from the censuses was appropriate for evaluating and forecasting the changes in the social and economic transformations of the country. As a consequence of the acceleration of the everyday life of the society in the second half of the preceding century the timeliness has a high importance. Taking the former into account some countries have decided to shorten the time interval of the censuses while others have chosen the execution by the mid of the interval of the two censuses a microcensus (sample survey) based on a smaller fraction of the population.

In Hungary as from 1960 the latter method is applied. Based on the Law CXXI. 2004 the last microcensus - the 5th of the series - had been executed at a reference date of April 1, 2005. The survey covered 2 percent of the dwellings and the population respectively. By selecting of the addresses of the sample statistical methods have been used. In the former process criteria was that the final results of the survey besides the description of the demographic, educational, employment, family and housing conditions of the country as a whole should produce appropriate and real information on the different administrative and geographical territories (regions, counties, towns, villages) as well as on the mentioned characteristics of the population living on the territory of the individual parliamentary constituencies.

By the end of June 2005 the preliminary processing of the data of the questionnaires collected on the selected addresses had been resumed. Application of statistical-mathematical methods had been used for rounding the raw figures and as such enabling the processing and production of the tables for communication. The present and first publication refers to the individual parliamentary constituencies. The grouping of the data corresponds to the 2/1990 (11.I.) decree of the Council of Ministers on the individual parliamentary constituencies. The allocation of the addresses/population in the capital and in the localities with several individual constituencies is in line with the voting districts of the 2002 parliamentary elections.

It has to be mentioned that the data are results of a sample survey instead of a full-scale enumeration. As a consequence for the comparison of the different territories, constituencies instead of using the absolute figures the application of the relative data, the structural characteristics, the different indexes are advised. By using the absolute figures it is possible to define the relations of the structural indices while the main data are presented in the first two tables of the publication. Due to technical reasons and due to the rounding methods slight differences between the data reflecting to the same indicator of the tables might occur; the same is valid for comparing the data of the present and the following publications of the microcensus. These discrepancies are within the limits of the statistical errors.

Regarding the categories of the economic activity the microcensus applied the recommendations of the International Labour Office (ILO) though due to the contextual and time limits of the enumeration - unlike the regular labour survey of the HCSO - the category of the unemployment is only partially compatible.

The methodology and the definitions of the different categories are shown in a separate page as well as on the www.ksh.hu internet portal on the page www.nepszamlalas.hu.

Budapest, September 2005