BEIJING — How do you count 1.3 billion or so people? Here in China this week: Door to door.
Politely.
Covering your dirty shoes with plastic wrappers before entering homes as you provide reassurance that sensitive information — about residency permits or babies who violate China’s one-child policy — will not be shared with other authorities.
But beware of dogs.
China today is completing the world’s largest census, one so big that it has required 6 million census takers — more than the entire population of many countries. This is the sixth time that China is conducting a nationwide census, the first since 2000.
After the last count, a decade ago, China’s population was 1.27 billion. U.N. estimates put China’s population today near 1.4 billion.
Privacy concerns
In an effort to tally China’s staggering migrant population, estimated at more than 200 million, census takers are seeking to count people where they live, rather than at the homes where they have their “hu kous,” or residency permits. Until a decade ago, people who had moved to big cities without permits could be arrested and deported from the cities.
Census takers have also offered stronger assurances than in the past that the information they collect will remain confidential. Issues of family planning, taxes, land ownership and residency permits are all, at least in theory, kept separate from the census.
“This is only about statistics, but people are worried that they could get fined for having an extra child and they’ll avoid the census,” said Duan Cheng rong, head of the population department at Renmin University. “Like in the U.S., the Chinese these days are paying more attention to their privacy. They don’t want their home to be invaded.”
In advance of the 10-day census, the Chinese government began a massive awareness campaign. Large green banners garlanded across streets throughout the country read: “Conducting a census — establishing a harmonious society,” and, “Cooperating with the census is your responsibility as a citizen.”
In alleys near Beijing’s South Railroad Station, where migrants from the countryside live in housing not much larger than some American bathrooms, census takers make repeat visits at different times of the day, hoping to catch otherwise elusive residents by surprise.
“They come sometimes at 10 p.m. to find us,” said a woman from Anhui province who was washing clothes in an outdoor sink.
Not an easy job
The life of a census taker is not easy. Their pay works out to about $150 for a month’s work, and many report being bitten by dogs. In one neighborhood in the southern city of Guangzhou, out of 32 workers, 11 quit by the third day of the census, according to Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper.
Some census takers say that their difficulties in getting information are even greater in wealthy neighborhoods than in poor ones. A reporter with a Chinese legal newspaper who went out with census takers during a preliminary census in August found only one resident who opened the door in a posh gated community of 39 villas in the suburbs of Beijing. Often nobody answered doorbells even though people could be seen behind closed curtains.
“The rich worry more about their privacy. They may have second or third homes or mistresses they’re hiding away,” said Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at Renmin University. “But it’s true of ordinary people as well — they’re not willing to cooperate with the government the way they used to in the old China.”
Many say they have felt reassured by the government’s declaration that information cannot be used to levy fines, which often run as high as six times an annual income for extra births. But in China, if a mere 10 percent of those covered by the census do not feel reassured, that amounts to roughly 130 million people.
Census methods have varied by location. Millions in Beijing received text messages on their cellphones instructing them to cooperate. In some neighborhoods, census takers have offered towels or shopping bags as token gifts to coax people into answering the questions. Elsewhere, census takers have been allowed to call in the police if residents refuse to answer the door.
Similar to the census process in the U.S., most people are given a standard form with only a handful of basic questions: 18 of them centering on names, ages, occupation. Ethnicity is also asked, but not religion. One- tenth of the population, meanwhile, was selected for a longer, 45-question form that includes queries about income, savings, the type of water one drinks (tap or boiled) and the number of bathrooms in the house.
The census data are expected to be published in April.
