On 14 September 2007, the Federal Minister of the Interior for the first time appointed a commission of scientists to participate in the shaping and conduct of a population census. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the next population census is planned to take place in 2011. The Census Commission will provide advice and support in the scientific evaluation of census data, too.
The tasks of the Census Commission are to evaluate the concepts, methods and procedures developed by the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder for the register-based census 2011 (incl. the supplementary sample survey), to accompany the implementation in a critical and constructive manner and to provide recommendations for further approaches.
The Chairman of the German Data Forum, Prof. Dr. Gert G. Wagner, was appointed Chairman of the Census Commission. Also, Prof. Wagner holds the Chair of Economics at TU Berlin (Berlin University of Technology) and is Chairman of the Executive Board of DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research).
Members of the Census Commission
- Prof. Dr. Gert G. Wagner, TU Berlin and DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research) - Chairman
- Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Andreß, University of Cologne, sociology
- Prof. Dr. Caroline Kramer, Universität Karlsruhe (TH) (Research University), geography
- Prof. Dr. Risto Lehtonen, University of Helsinki, survey statistics
- Prof. Dr. Hans Rattinger, University of Mannheim, comparative political behavior
- Prof. Dr. Susanne Rässler, University of Bamberg, statistics
- Dr. Hilmar Schneider, Dr. Hilmar Schneider, Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (Institute for the Study of Labor), Bonn, economics
- Prof. Dr. Heike Trappe, Prof. Dr. Heike Trappe, University of Rostock, demography
- Dr. Heike Wirth, GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim, data access and data protection
The persons appointed as members of the Commission are representatives of various scientific disciplines that are directly linked to matters of designing the census and analysing its results. The Commission members will work on a voluntary basis.