More Window Dressing?

Where did Belstat get the numbers reflecting the census results in Belarus?

Today, Belstat began to publish the data of the census that took place in Belarus in 2019. The census procedure itself caused a lot of discontent among the people. Many categorically rejected the idea of participating in it. And no wonder, because some of the questions were quite personal by nature: about the sources of their income, plans for going abroad, and personal information (plans regarding the quantity of children, etc.).

The publication of census data also raises doubts and questions among people. Especially the figure reflecting the quantitative composition of the population of Belarus. The enumerators counted 9,413,446 people, which is only 41 thousand less than in 2009. At the same time, independent experts are talking about large-scale emigration of Belarusians to the EU countries and Russia. Often, our fellow citizens stay away from consular records in other countries. It turns out that the Belarusian migration services do not receive any information about the relocation of Belarusians. During the census, information about people who could not be subjected to census for some reason was simply taken from the State Register.

But has there ever been such a goal to record all Belarusians?

“Belstat claims that 95 percent of the population of Belarus participated in the 2019 census. For example, they didn’t record me,” writes famous journalist Andrzej Poczobut on his Facebook page.

People actively joined the discussion under Andrzej's post:

“Almost nobody was recorded at the place where my parents work, and they themselves refused”;

“No one was subjected to census among my relatives and acquaintances, the census is needed only to print 3 million bullshit bulletins”;

“Among my acquaintances (about 35 people), no one was recorded”;

“My husband, parents, daughter - all unrecorded”;

“My large family, about 20 people - not recorded.”

A reasonable question arises: can such a census be trusted? Charter97.org news website asked this question to Andrzej Poczobut:

“I don't know where they get the numbers from. The census has always been a certain political action. There were always certain drawbacks, but not even close to the ones we saw during this census, when data from the State Register were simply copied. They ignored the census. At least, earlier, they went to people, filled out questionnaires, and so on. Now the authorities have abandoned the very idea. I think that they simply organized some window dressing, supposedly something is going on, but in fact a huge number of people were not covered by this census. I understand that the World Bank funded this census, so they should now ask a question where their money went.

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