Managing census complexity through highly integrated web systems

During 2011 General Population and Housing Census methodological innovations towards the planning of a register-based census were introduced. Such innovations allowed to reach a satisfactory cost-benefit balance but increased the survey complexity and the risk of errors.Istat focus on web technologies was aimed at performing an innovative census, both in terms of methodology and costs and of data dissemination timeliness. This paper shows how a highly integrated web information system was used to manage a census workflow involving several actors and multiple phases and integrating different data sources. The success of 2011 Census led Istat to adopt such technological infrastructure as the core of the ‘Continuous General Population and Housing Census’.