Integrating Population Data: Challenges and Prospects

The article deals with methodological, organizational, and technological issues of integrating population data obtained from various administrative sources and corporative big data. The article proves the particular relevance of the interaction between official statistics and other governmental and corporative information systems amidst the digitization of the economy and social life and the incipient establishment of the federal population data register. The authors propose a system of interrelated aggregates, characterizing various categories of population, which differ according to criteria of citizenship, permanent residence, duration, and purposes of stay on the territory of Russia. Challenges associated with estimating these aggregates are analyzed. The article considers possibilities and legal limitations in the work of statisticians on systematizing information, rationalizing the selection and subsequent joint use of information, characterizing an individual (i.e. matching) for addressing various tasks faced by social and demographic statistics. Special attention is paid to the various options for resolving the issue of a personal code (one or more) that allow linking information on the individual from different databases. The need to ensure the transparency of the methodology used by the various participants of informational interaction is emphasized, which in turn shall pave the way for the harmonization and, where possible, the unification of such methodology. The paper demonstrates the crucial role of preliminary qualitative analysis of data from different sources and explains mechanisms for further interaction of statistical authorities with organizations, interested in this information, and social structures. Using mobile operators’ and providers’ data on the population of the city, necessary conditions for their adequate interpretation – transparent methodology, clear description of population aggregates to estimate, and assumptions used for such estimations – are characterized.

1. Klupt M.A. Data on International Migration to Russia: The Problems of Consistency and Reliability. In: Eliseeva I.I., Bochenina M.V. (eds.) Data Management in Economy. St. Petersburg: SPbGEU Publ.; 2020. P. 79–95 (In Russ.).

2. Denissenko M.B. Emigration from Russia According to Foreign Statistics. Demoscope Weelky. 2012;(513–514). (In Russ.) Available from: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2012/0513/tema01.php.

3. Potapova A.A. Emigration from Russia: The Current Decade. Demoscope Weekly. 2017;(719–720). (In Russ.) Available from: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2017/0719/tema01.php.

4. Chudinovskikh O.S. Statistics on Citizenship Acquisition as a Reflection of the Peculiarities of the Russian Migration Policy. Voprosy Statistiki. 2018;25(9):3–26. (In Russ.)

5. Makhrova A.G., Babkin R.A., Kazakov E.E. The Dynamics of the Day and Night Population as an Indicator of Structural and Functional Changes in the Territory of the City in the Zone of Influence of the Moscow Central Ring Using Data from Mobile Operators. Outlines of Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, Law. 2020;13(1):159– 179. (In Russ.)

6. United Nations. Guidelines on the Use of Registers and Administrative Data for Population and Housing Censuses. New York, Geneva; 2018. (In Russ.) Available from: https://unece.org/guidelines-use-registers-and-administrative-data-population-and-housing-censuses-0 (accessed 24.03.2021).

7. Population Registers in Different Countries. Design and Developments in Relation to the Netherlands. Zoetermeer; 2019. Available from: https://kennisopenbaarbestuur.nl/media/256912/population-registers-in-different-countries.pdf (accessed 24.03.2021).

8. The Combined Census Model in Germany – Origins, Lessons Learned and Future Perspectives. Note by the Federal Statistical Office, Germany. In: Conference of European Statisticians Group of Experts on Population and Housing Censuses Nineteenth Meeting Geneva, Switzerland 4–6 October 2017. Available from: https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/documents/ece/ces/ge.41/2017/Meeting-Geneva-Oct/WP25_ENG.pdf (accessed 24.03.2021).

9. International Migration Statistics. Report of the Secretary-General. In: Fiftieth session of the UN Statistical Commission, 5–8 March 2019. Available from: https://unstats.u.org/unsd/statcom/50th-session/documents/2019-17-MigrationStats-R.pdf (accessed 24/03/2021).

10. Chudinovskikh O.S. On the Establishment of the Population Register and the Use of Administrative Data for the Needs of State Statistics. Voprosy Statistiki. 2021;28(1):5-17. (In Russ.) Available from: https://doi.org/10.34023/2313-6383-2021-28-1-5-17.

11. Poulain M., Herm A. Central Population Registers as a Source of Demographic Statistics in Europe. Population. 2013;68(2):183–212.