Definitions
Article 2
The definitions and technical specifications set out in Regulation (EC) No 763/2008, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/543 ( 4 ) and Regulation (EU) 2017/712 shall apply for the purpose of this Regulation. The following definitions shall also apply: 1. ‘statistical unit’ means the basic observation unit, namely a natural person, household, family, living quarter or conventional dwelling; 2. ‘individual enumeration’ means the collection of information on each statistical unit so that its characteristics can be recorded separately and cross-classified with other characteristics; 3. ‘simultaneity’ means that the information obtained in a census refers to the same point in time (reference date); 4. ‘universality within a defined territory’ means that data are provided for all statistical units within a precisely defined territory. Where the statistical units are persons, ‘universality within a defined territory’ means that data are provided based on information for all persons who have their usual residence in the defined territory (total population); 5. ‘availability of small-area data’ means the availability of data for small geographical areas and small groups of statistical units; 6. ‘defined periodicity’ means the regular conducting of censuses at the beginning of every decade, including the continuity of registers; 7. ‘data source’ means the set of data records for statistical units and/or events relating to the statistical units which forms a direct basis for the production of census data about one or more specified topics for a specified target population; 8. ‘target population’ means the set of all statistical units in a defined geographical area at the reference date which qualify for reporting on one or more specified topics. It includes each valid statistical unit only once; 9. ‘estimated target population’ means the best available approximation of the target population. It consists of the census population plus under-coverage minus over-coverage; 10. ‘census population’ means the set of statistical units that is factually represented by the census results on one or more specified topics for a specified target population. The data records for the census population are those in the data source for the specified target population, including all imputed records and excluding all deleted records. If a data source comprises, as a matter of methodological principle, data records for only a sample of the statistical units in its estimated target population, the census population includes the complementary set of statistical units, in addition to the statistical units in the sample; 11. ‘complementary set of statistical units’ means the set of those statistical units that belong to an estimated target population, but on which, as a result of an applied sampling methodology, the data source contains no data records; 12. ‘coverage assessment’ means a study of the difference between a specified target population and its census population; 13. ‘post-enumeration survey’ means a survey conducted shortly after the enumeration for coverage and content assessment purposes; 14. ‘under-coverage’ means the set of all statistical units that belong to a specified target population but are not included in the corresponding census population; 15. ‘over-coverage’ means the set of all statistical units that are included in a census population used to report on a specified target population, but without belonging to that target population; 16. ‘record imputation’ means the assignment of an artificial but plausible data record to exactly one geographical area at the most detailed geographical level for which census data are produced, and the imputation of that data record into a data source; 17. ‘record deletion’ means the act of deleting or ignoring/not taking into account a data record that is included in a data source used to report on a specified target population but does not report any valid information on any statistical unit within that target population; 18. ‘item imputation’ means the insertion of an artificial but plausible value on a specific topic into a data record that already exists in a data source but either does not contain this value or contains a value that is considered implausible; 19. ‘questionnaire-based data’ means data originally obtained from respondents by means of a questionnaire in the context of a collection of statistical data that refer to a specified point in time; 20. ‘record linkage’ means the process of merging information from different data sources by comparing records for individual statistical units and merging information referring to the same statistical unit; 21. ‘unique identifier’ means a variable or set of variables in the data records in a data source or any list of statistical units which is used for — verifying that the data source (or list of statistical units) includes no more than one data record for each statistical unit, and/or — record linkage; 22. ‘register’ means a repository of information about statistical units which is directly updated in the course of events affecting the statistical units; 23. ‘register-based data’ means data in or from a register; 24. ‘matching of registers’ means record linkage where all matched data sources are contained in registers; 25. ‘data extraction’ means the process of retrieving census information from information contained in a register and relating to individual statistical units; 26. ‘coding’ means the process of converting information into codes representing classes within a classification scheme; 27. ‘capturing’ means the process by which collected data are imported into a form suitable for further processing; 28. ‘record editing’ means the process of checking and modifying data records to make them plausible while at the same time preserving major parts of them; 29. ‘generation of a household’ means the identification of a private household according to the household-dwelling concept as defined in the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/543 under the topic ‘Household status’; 30. ‘generation of a family’ means the identification of a family based on information on whether the persons live in the same household, but with no or incomplete information on family relationships between them. The term ‘family’ is specified in ‘family nucleus’ as defined in the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/543 under the topic ‘Family status’; 31. ‘unit no-information’ means the failure to collect any data from a statistical unit that is in the census population; 32. ‘statistical disclosure control’ means the methods and processes applied in order to minimise the risk of disclosing information on individual statistical units when releasing statistical information; 33. ‘estimation’ means the calculation of statistical estimates using a mathematical formula and/or algorithm applied to the available data; 34. ‘data structure definition’ means a set of structural metadata associated with a data set, which includes information about how topics are associated with the measures, dimensions and attributes of a hypercube, along with breakdowns, information about the representation of data and related descriptive metadata.