Each year, the National Institute
of Economic Statistics and Studies (INSEE) uses information
provided from the census to calculate the country's current population and
latest changes within society.
Selected
households across the nation are required to provide personal information which
enables the government to come up with ideas for future policies concerning
employment and housing. This year's survey is from 19th January until
Sunday 18th February
for our village and I think that the dates may vary for other villages, or
cities and towns. Residents
are notified and subsequently receive a visit from a member of staff in
possession of an official identity card.
These professionals offer help and assistance in answering the questions
related to the survey.
The
census is in two parts: the first includes 15 questions concerning
housing, and the second has 25
questions about age, place of birth, nationality, education, previous place of
residence and current occupation. We are told that the information in the
survey remains confidential and anonymous.
According to French law I am obliged to
answer the census questionnaire for 2012. I complete one about 4 or 5 years ago. In our region of France the household is visited, the agent
fills in the form and my signature is required. The process with me took less than 15 minutes. As a retiree I presume I am now
‘unimportant ‘ as I did not have as many questions asked as those who are
younger or who are in employment.
Matters that were of interest:
·
Age of property
·
How many bedrooms? This provided a
difficulty because I maintain that the smallest room is an office and that
there is only one bedroom. The
rooms of my house are all on the ground floor but the house is not a
bungalow. Therefore, How many rooms? The number did not have
to include the kitchen if it was less than 10m₂ and did not include the
bathroom. I did not include the
pantry because that is also less than 10m₂. It seems surprising that there
is no census of how many French houses have a bathroom? And why isn’t a kitchen
important? For me it is the most important room of the house (apart from where
I sleep). It is the social hub of the house. I know that some French houses have a combined living room
and kitchen and in some small houses these rooms are less than 10m₂. Outcome: my property has been degraded to 4 rooms
instead of 7.
·
Habitable surface of the whole
house. She wanted to know if it was
between80 and 100m2.
·
Was I the owner?
·
How many people live in the
house?
·
What was my nationality?
·
What was my status? husband, wife, partner, pacsed,
celibataire, etcetera, although she did not name all of these.
·
When did I move into the house? Even
though I was the owner on one date it WAS the moving in date,14 months later
that was important for her.
·
Principal source of heating.
Logs. It mattered not that the house could
have the facility for central heating fuel when I re-install the radiators or
that sometimes I use an electrical heater.
·
Do I have a car? How many?
·
My date of birth and where I was born?
The latter confused her as she was not sure whether to write England or the
exact place of birth
·
Date of arrival as resident in France.
She assumed this was the date I moved into the house so I had to correct her on
that. So next question was Where did I lived
before ?
·
Was I retired? and What did I do before I retired?
Anyone
who is further interested could go to
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