Estonian e-Census

Census procedures supported by census act, by strategical documents of Statistics Estonia.

Legal and organizational interoperability: legislation approved by stakeholders

All registers must linked by use commonly accepted keys:
• personal code for citizens,
• code of institution,
• standardised address presentation.

Secure data exchange layer X-Road (https://www.ria.ee/en/x-road.html) is used for gathering data from different registers. X-Road is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. All registers and Statistics Estonia must be a member of X-Road

Information regarding the X-Road members and the services they provide is available via the Administration System for the State Information System (RIHA). RIHA (https://www.ria.ee/en/administration-system-of-the-state-information-system.html ) serves as a catalogue for the state’s information system. At the same time RIHA is a procedural and administrative environment via which the comprehensive and balanced development of the state’s information system has ensured. RIHA guarantees the transparency of the administration of the state’s information system and helps to plan the state’s information management.

PKI or the public key infrastructure (https://www.ria.ee/en/public-key-infrastructure.html ) enables secure digital authentication and signing. The infrastructure also allows forwarding data by using an encrypting key pair: a public encryption key and a private decryption key. In Estonia, this technology is used in relation with electronic identity (ID card, mobile ID, digital ID). All members of X-Road are using Digital seal certificates for signing messages. Citizens and officials are using electronic identity tokens.

All participants must be implemented three-level IT baseline security system ISKE (https://www.ria.ee/en/iske-en.html). The goal of implementing ISKE is to ensure a security level sufficient for the data processed in IT systems. The necessary security level achieved by implementing the standard organisational, infrastructural/physical and technical security measures.

The address data system (ADS) (http://www.maaamet.ee/index.php?lang_id=1&page_id=471&no_cache=1485415080) must implemented in all parties. ADS is a framework of administrative, technical and legal measures which ensures unambiguous identification of address objects in their location and in different databases, and common organisation of the establishment of location addresses and processing of address data.

Data guidelines of Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (http://www.aki.ee/et/juhised) must followed.

Benefits

Save manual work. Compared to conventional censuses, a register-based census saves the state an average of 25 x 1,300,000 minutes, or 541,667 hours, or 67,708 working days, or 280 full-time staff years.

Save time. A register-based census enables receiving results faster than a conventional census, as it reduces the number of human errors made by enumerated persons, which would have to be corrected during the data validation period in a conventional census. If the same national databases are regularly used for censuses, it is possible to use standardised software for the validation and analysis of census data.

Lower cost. A register-based census has lower costs, because it eliminates the need for census interviews which is the most labour- and cost-intensive stage of conventional
censuses.
Better quality. The quality of a register-based census depends on the quality of data. High data quality should be an important objective for each national database.