census - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1987 - 80 Pfennig

On May 25, 1987, in the Federal Republic of Germany, a population, occupation, building, housing and workplace count (in short: 1987 census) carried out. The legal basis is the Census Act 1987 of 8 November 1985 (BGBI I p. The tasks and objectives of the census are laid down in §1 Abs. 2 Census Act 1987 as follows: »The results of the censuses form the basis for political decisions in federal, state, local and local governments in the fields of economics and social affairs, housing, regional planning, traffic, environment as well as labor market and education. At the same time, the censuses provide basic data for the entire system of official statistics and form the basis for determining the official population of the federal, state and local governments by the statistical offices of the Federation and the Länder. "The 1987 census remains essentially unchanged in line with the objectives of the preceding 3 Census of 1950, 1961 and 1970 on. Like these counts, the 1987 census is carried out as a full census with a duty to provide information. In all survey phases and in the processing of the results in the statistical offices, the strict regulations of the statistical secrecy of the Federal Statistics Law and the data protection laws of the federal and state governments apply. An important application example for the necessity of exact absolute total numbers instead of "merely" representative or estimated numbers is the proof of official population figures. Numerous federal and state legislations refer to the number of inhabitants as a basis for assessment (inter alia in elections, in determining the voting shares of the federal states, in the calculation of the financial equalization between the different regional authorities). High accuracy requirements are also placed on labor market data. In-depth analysis and targeted assistance require profoundly-structured data that identifies the extent of imbalances in regional labor markets, differences in regional unemployment and economic strength. Similar examples can be cited for data needs in environmental policy, transport policy and housing and spatial planning policy. With the 1987 census, the Federal Republic of Germany also takes into account international obligations at European level and in the area of ​​the United Nations. Originally, the census was already arranged for April 27, 1983. Due to numerous constitutional complaints against the 1983 Census Act, the Federal Constitutional Court suspended the implementation of the census on 27 April 1983 by issuing a preliminary injunction. With the census judgment of December 15, 1983 (BVerfGE 65,1) it has u. a. following basic statement on the meaning of the statistics and the census: »Only the knowledge of the relevant data ... creates the for a welfare state oriented state policy an indispensable basis for action« (BVerfGE 65,1 (47)). The federal government has drafted the new census law in strict compliance with all requirements of the census judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court. After careful and thorough parliamentary deliberations, in which there was also a public hearing of numerous national and international experts, the German Bundestag passed the National Census Act 1987 on 26 September 1985 with a large parliamentary majority. At the same time he made the following decision: "The German Bundestag asks all fellow citizens in the interest of the general public but also each one of them to participate in the census. The legislator has taken all precautions to ensure data protection. «(Text: Ministerialrat Bernhard Pohl, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Bonn)