


Application of Information Technology in the 2011 Population Census of Macao, China Government of Macao Special Administrative Region Statistics and Census Service
2011 Population Census • Conducted in August 2011, for the duration of 15 days • 13 work branches, distributed geographically • A total of around 240,000 building units covered, in which 28,000 using long forms
Data collection • Short form: • Paper-based questionnaires, scanned and recognized at each work branch • Web-based e-questionnaire • Long form: • Interactive enumeration software system
Application of Information Technology (IT) • CATI call centre • OCR & marks recognition • SMS • E-questionnaire • Tablet PC
E-questionnaire • Immediate validation • Submission through SSL encryption • 9% of the building units using equestionnaire for data submission
Benefits: e-questionnaire • At the convenience of households • No more time restriction • Higher response rate • Better data quality
Use of tablet PC • Feasibility study started in 2009 • Tablet PC processing power • Wi-Fi reliability • Battery life • Data security
Tablet PC: hardware • Dual Core low power CPU • 10.1” touch screen • Solid state storage drive • Wi-Fi connectivity • 0.97kg weight • Battery life is enough for a full work shift
Partially completed Completed Could not be contacted Test data for demo purpose
Benefits: tablet PC • Improving data quality • Facilitating skip pattern of the questionnaire • Maps and photos of entrances • Tight integration with other subsystems to get up-to-date information (e.g. appointments, remarks) • More efficient work and progress monitoring
Challenges: tablet PC • Data security • Battery life • User interface
Data security • Data at rest stored on the tablet PC storage media • Data in transit during synchronization
Data at rest • Login password protection (OS and enumeration system) • Basic user privileges for census officers • Use of the enumeration software system • Data synchronization • File system level encryption of the local database files • Census officers do not have access to the decryption key • USB flash drives disabled
Data in transit • From tablet PC to work branch • Wi-Fi 802.11n WPA2 • IPsec/L2TP VPN using digital certificates • From work branch to HQ • Private network infrastructure • IPsec VPN tunneling
User interface • Colour-coded questions • Appropriately distanced buttons for touch operation • Touch friendly keyboard • Questions grouped in tabs instead of scrolling • Experience and feedback from pilot census
Printed reports Digital reports Geographic Information System (GIS) Data dissemination
Future development • Possibility of full time connectivity • Reduce use of SMS • Speed up notifications • Two-way communications • Broader use of tablet PC • In other surveys • Devices of other form factors