Register-based census in Thailand: A case study in Chachoengsao province

Abstract

The use of registers has been increasingly popular in the field of population census because of its advantages over the traditional census. While the traditional census requires a large amount of fieldwork and data collection, the registered-based census can rely on pre-existing administrative data. As a result, the register-based census can save both time and budget. Thailand explored a use of the register-based census in 2020. In this paper, the authors layout the methodology in an aspect of data preparation and integration as well as analyze data quality of the register-based census compared with the traditional census in Chachoengsao province, Thailand. In addition, we compared conceptual frameworks that are commonly used for a register-based census in several countries and the number of databases (a recent single database VS multiple databases) used to construct the register-based census. We found that using a conceptual framework that counts the number of populations based on the main census variables on a single recent database is better than using a framework that counts population who appears on many registers in term of overcoverage and data distribution regarding to sex. This provides the evidence of using one recent and complete database is sufficient for conducting the register-based census. The authors end up with recommendations for conducing the register-based census.