In 2020, China successfully organized the Seventh National Population Census despite challenging conditions under the COVID-19 pandemic. Many government agencies, experts, academics, and grassroots personnel were consulted as part of the Seventh Census, and several pilot projects were implemented.
Building on this and drawing on the experiences from previous censuses, the Seventh Census sought to innovate in many areas, such as census methods, procedures, and data processing strategies, by utilizing China's rapidly developing network infrastructure, big data, and cloud computing technologies. Through these innovations and enhanced quality control measures, the census recorded a net undercount rate of only 0.05%, thus successfully meeting its expected objective to collect quality demographic data of the population.
China’s experience of completing the Seventh Census provides a useful reference for other countries preparing to conduct censuses, especially in challenging conditions such as the context of the pandemic.
