There are no plans to postpone again the September census and it will be organized as planned, State Statistical Office Director Apostol Simevski said Monday.
As the epidemiological situation involving the coronavirus epidemic will be closely followed, the census operation will be organized according to the defined protection protocols. Also, census takers will be vaccinated stating August before the operation is launched, Simevski told Slobodna TV’s Morning Briefing show.
Asked how realistic were the expectations that the census could register no more than 1.6 million inhabitants in the country, Simevski said he was afraid that the expectations could prove to be true.
“According to statistical data that we collect, the number of births in the country has been continuously dropping while the number rises abroad. It suggests that a large portion of our population has left the country. Thus, I’m afraid that the number of the population will be reduced,” said the head of the State Statistical office.
According to German statistics, there were 128,000 Macedonian nationals living in Germany by the end of 2020. “This number is huge. We don’t know how many nationals originating from Macedonia and who hold German citizenship are there because Germany doesn’t allow dual citizenship. We also don’t know how many of our nationals had gone there with Bulgarian passports, because they are registered as being Bulgarian nationals. It is estimated somewhere around 300,000,” Simovski said adding that census self-registration for citizens abroad, which is under way, has shown that there are Macedonian nationals all around the globe.
