ZAGREB, February 21, 2020 - The Croatian parliament has postponed until next Friday a vote on 20-odd items on its agenda, including a bill on the population census scheduled for the spring next year, which sparked a heated debate and led to three deputies of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leaving the chamber.

"My colleagues from the HDZ group have informed me that the group representing the ethnic minorities will hold additional consultations, so the vote will be next Friday," Speaker Gordan Jandroković said after a break which was preceded by a heated debate.

Things escalated during the debate on amendments to the census bill tabled by the ethnic minorities group. The proposed amendments were first rejected by a government representative and then by MPs, after which Vladimir Bilek, MP for the Czech and Slovak minorities, requested a recess so that the group could agree on how to vote on the bill.

Rejected was the amendment in which the minority MPs proposed that citizens be allowed to say that they have more than one mother tongue and the amendment concerning the appointment of census takers from among the ethnic minorities.

Zdravko Zrinušić, state secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said that everyone is free to declare their mother tongue and that the introduction of "two modalities" could lead to unreliable results and unclear answers, as a result of which data might not be comparable with previous census data.

Speaking of census takers, Zrinušić said that before every census the National Bureau of Statistics prepares instructions specifying the criteria for census takers and that it will be so this time too.

"During the selection process county election commissions will be required to take into account the representation of members of ethnic minorities among census takers in areas populated by ethnic minorities," he said.

Branko Bačić of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that next year's census would be the fourth since 1991 and that the same rules had applied to all the previous censuses.

Parliament voted on four of 29 items planned and added 12 more items to the agenda, including a motion to relieve Dražen Jelenić of his duties as chief state attorney.

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ZAGREB, January 30, 2020 - Croatia will conduct a population census in the spring of 2021, and on Thursday the government sent a bill to parliament regulating this most comprehensive and complex statistical survey of the population, households and homes in the country.

The census will be carried out from April 1 until May 7, 2021 in two stages. In the first stage, from April 1 to 10, citizens will be able to enter their details in the e-Citizen system, while from April 16 to May 7 census takers will visit households that did not fill in the census form electronically.

The census is organised, coordinated and conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (HGK) in cooperation with state administration and local and regional government authorities.

177.3 million kuna (24 million euro) has been set aside in the state budget for this purpose.

Sixteen censuses have been conducted in Croatia to date: eight between 1857 and 1931 and as many between 1948 and 2011. No census was taken in 1941 because of the Second World War.

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ZAGREB, November 9, 2019 - Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica has announced that a bill on the 2021 census, which has been put up for public consultation, also envisages the electronic collection of data, apart from census takers who will collect data in the field.

This will be the first time for Croatia to conduct a population census by census takers and also to have an e-census conducted simultaneously.

"The draft act is currently being discussed. We will see what the next steps could be," Malenica said.

The electronic collection of data is expected to be conducted from 1 to 10 April 2021 through the e-citizen system, and will provide an opportunity for citizens to present the necessary data about themselves and their households online.

The second stage, set for 16 April to 7 May 2021, will be conducted on the ground by census-takers in households which have not been covered by the e-census.

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