Definitions of population census concepts

A - B - C - D - E - F - H - I - L - M - N - P - Q - R - S - T - U - W

Dwellings are classified as follows, according to whether there is a drinking water supply point inside the dwelling and whether there is electricity supply to at least one of its rooms :

The activity rate is the ratio between the labour force (occupied labour force and the unemployed) and the corresponding total population. It can be calculated for a class of individuals (women aged 25 to 29, for example).

Age is the amount of time passed since birth. It may be calculated according to two definitions :

For example, on the date of 1st January 2006, an individual born on 10 October 1925 is 81 years old by age reached in the year and 80 years old if we consider age in years passed.

Henceforth, population census results are presented using the age reached on the previous birthday.

NB

The results of the population censuses for 1999 and earlier were presented using the age by generation.

Now and since 2004, when census data is compared, all ages are expressed in years passed.

The apparent migration balance is the difference between the number of people entering a given territory and the number of persons leaving a territory, over the period of time in question. This figure is obtained by calculating the difference between total population variation over the course of the time period under consideration and the natural increase.

The number of years is calculated from the year the person moved into the dwelling. For example, for individuals surveyed in 2005 and declaring that they moved in 2005, the number of years is 0; for those who declared 2004, the number of years is 1, etc.

If all the occupants present for the census did not arrive at the same time, the moving date corresponds to that of the person who arrived first. If that person has always lived in the residence, the moving year corresponds to his/her year of birth.

Statistics on births are taken from registry office declarations and concern births of live-born children. They are counted in the place of residence of the mother.

The birth rate is the ratio between the number of live-born births in the year and the average total population of that year. It can be calculated over a period of several years but its value is always expressed on an annual basis.

The municipalities designated and coded as being border municipalities are those included in a list covering the following neighbouring countries: Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland. Only those bordering countries that host a significant number of workers, pupils and students residing in France have been included. If the person surveyed does not indicate a place of work or study, as the case may be, or indicates a foreign municipality that does not belong to one of these border countries or is not included in the list of border municipalities, the place of work or study is corrected, allocating the workplace of a worker residing nearby or the place of study of a student residing nearby. This place of work or study is generally located in France. This information may therefore prove to be fragile.

A child of the family is counted as being any person living in the same household as his or her parents, with whom they form a family, whatever their age, as long as the person does not have a partner or child living in the household (in which case they then form their own family in which they are the adult). The child of the family may be the child of both parents, of one of the parents, an adopted child, or a child under the guardianship of either parent. No age limit is set to be a child of the family. A grandson or granddaughter is not considered a "child of the family".

A couple whose children have all left the family home is counted among couples without children.

The Classification of Professions and Socioprofessional Categories, or PCS, replaced the CSP (Classification of Socioprofessional Categories) in 1982. It classifies the population by a combination of profession (or former profession), hierarchical position and status (salaried employee or otherwise). It comprises three embedded levels of aggregation :

This version currently in use (PCS-2003) has been in force since 1st January 2003. It groups together some professions between which the distinction had become obsolete and breaks others down to take account of the appearance of new professions or new functions that are transversal to different industrial activities.

At the 8, 24 and 42-item socioprofessional category (CS) levels, changes in relation to the 1999 census are not significant.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. This change may have an impact on the breakdown of the labour force in employment per socioprofessional category.

For farmers, the figures for CS 11, 12 and 13 (corresponding to small, medium and large farms, respectively) have been grouped together in CS 10 "Farmers", as this distinction between the three abovementioned socioprofessional categories requires information on farm surface area and that information is no longer available in the new population census

For the same reason, you are advised to group together the detailed professions with codes 111A, 121A and 131A (farmers on small, medium and large cereal and arable crop farms, respectively) in "Farmers on cereals and arable crop farms (all farm sizes)"; professions 111B, 121B and 131B (Vegetable gardeners and horticulturists on small, medium and large farms) in "Vegetable gardeners and horticulturists (all farm sizes)"; etc. Only "Agricultural contractors, 0 to 9 salaried employees”, "Independent foresters, 0 to 9 salaried employees" and "Fishermen and fish farmers, 0 to 9 salaried employees" may be kept as they are, as their professions are unrelated to land area.

A community is a group of residential premises falling under the same managing authority and whose residents share a common mode of living. The community population includes those people who live in the community, with the exception of those who live in company accommodation. Community categories are :

NB

Henceforth, with the new census method, pupils having reached majority age and military personnel living in barracks accommodation without their families are now part of the community population. They are no longer attached to the household of their family and are therefore no longer part of the household population as was the case in previous population censuses. The characteristics of the population living in communities and the population of households may be affected by this change, in particular in certain places. For instance, if the boarding accommodation or barracks is not located in the same municipality as the family home, these people will be counted in a different place from that they were counted in for previous censuses. They are now counted in the place where the boarding accommodation or barracks is located, whereas they were counted previously in the place of their family home. For some places, in particular those municipalities with a boarding school or military facility with large numbers of occupants in relation to the population of the municipality itself, the quality of comparisons over time may be affected significantly.

In the census results, a couple is formed by a man and a woman aged 14 years or over, who share the same main residence and fulfil at least one of the following two criteria: they both declare that they are married or both declare that they live together as a couple. Couples by the terms of this definition are de facto couples and may be married or not. Within a household, a couple forms a family whether it has children or not.

NB

Since 2004, the question "Are you living together as a couple?" has been included in census surveys to gain a better insight into de facto couples.

Death statistics are based on declarations to Civil Registry Offices. Deaths are registered in the place of residence of the deceased.

A dwelling is defined from the point of view of its use. It is a unit used for dwelling purposes and which is :

Dwellings are divided into four categories: main residence, second homes, occasional dwellings and vacant dwellings.

Mobile dwellings and dwelling units in communities (retirement homes, homes, religious communities, etc.) are not considered to be dwellings. Company accommodation is considered to be a dwelling, however.

In the census, members of the labour force in employment may be counted in their place of residence or their place of work. In the place of residence, we speak of the labour force in employment. In the place of work reference is made to employment in the place of work or, more succinctly, employment.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. A part of the change in employment since 1999 may be linked to this modification.

The employment conditions of the labour force in employment are presented according to the status of the persons in question. For salaried workers they correspond to the type of contract or job. Among salaried workers, a distinction is made between :

Among non-salaried workers, a distinction is made between self-employed persons, employers and home helps.

NB

Since 2004 and the introduction of the renovated population census, the wording of the questions on professional status has changed: there is no longer any explicit reference to “home help (salaried or otherwise)”, while a general question has been added about people helping another person without being paid for doing so. This may contribute to amplifying the sharp fall in the numbers in this category.

The new census also takes more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. This change may have an impact on the breakdown of the labour force in employment by employment conditions.

The employment feminisation rate for a class of jobs is the share of the jobs in the class in question occupied by women.

The employment rate of a class of individuals is the ratio of the number of individuals in the class who are in employment to the total number of individuals in the class. It can be calculated for the whole population of a country, but is usually restricted to the population of working age (generally defined, for the purposes of international comparison, as persons of between 15 and 64 years of age), or to a sub-category of the population of working age (women aged 25 to 29 years, for example).

The enrolment rate is the percentage of young people of a given school age who are schooled, against the total population of the same age.

A family is the part of a household comprising at least two people and formed :

For a person to be a child of the family, they must be single and not have a spouse or child belonging to the same household (see definition of the child of the family).

A household may contain zero, one or several families. Within a household, an individual may either belong to one family, and only one, or belong to no family at all.

A household for the purposes of the census refers to all the people sharing the same main residence, without those people necessarily being related to each other. A household may comprise a single person. The number of households is equal to the number of main residences.

Persons living in mobile accommodation, boatmen, the homeless and persons living in a community (workers in a home, retirement homes, university halls of residence, remand centres, etc.) are considered as not living in a household.

NB

Since 2004, the allocation of certain categories of the population living in a community and also having a family residence has been changed from that in the 1999 census. This mainly concerns adult pupils and students in boarding facilities and military personnel lodged in barracks but also having a personal residence. They are now counted in their community and therefore in the non-household population of the municipality where the establishment is located. Previously they were attached to their family residence and therefore counted in the household population of the municipality of their family residence.

Conversely, minors who are students lodged in university halls of residence are attached to their family residence and therefore in the household population, whereas they were counted in their community until 1999. They represent a very small number of people, much less than that of adults in boarding facilities.

The household population covers all persons who share the same main residence, without these people necessarily being blood-related. It does not cover persons living in mobile accommodation, boatmen, the homeless and persons living in a community (workers in a home, retirement homes, university halls of residence, remand centres, etc.).

NB

Since 2004 and the renovated census, adult pupils or students living in boarding facilities and military personnel living in barracks without their family are no longer part of the household population as they are no longer attached to the household of their family, as was the case in previous population censuses. These changes may explain part of the trends since 1999.

The size of a household is equal to the number of people that compose it, meaning the number of occupants of the main residence. Households can be broken down according to their size (expressed in integers), and an average household size can also be calculated (expressed with a decimal) for a group of households, for example those within a geographical zone.

NB

For the census, minors lodged elsewhere for their studies and spouses with another home for professional purposes are included in the household.

The scope of households changed slightly between the 1999 and 2004 census. The difference concerns :

Housing is divided into four categories :

The distinction between occasional housing and second homes is sometimes hard to establish and the two categories are therefore often grouped together.

Occupancy status defines the legal situations of households concerning the occupancy of their main residence. Three main statuses can be distinguished :

NB

Since 2004 and the renovated census, those households who were life tenants in their main residence (by inter vivos distribution, for example) have been considered owners. They were previously considered as being lodged free of charge in previous censuses.

The notion adopted is that of the living space including corridors, kitchen, bathroom and WC. However, balconies, terraces, verandas, cellars, car parks, attics and any rooms for professional use exclusively are not included.

Under the terms of the definition adopted by the High Council for Integration, an immigrant is a person who is born a foreigner and abroad, and resides in France. Persons who were born abroad and of French nationality and live in France are therefore not counted.

Certain immigrants may have become French while others remain foreign. The foreign and immigrant populations are therefore not quite the same: an immigrant is not necessarily foreign and certain foreigners were born in France (mainly minors). Immigrant status is permanent: an individual will continue to belong to the immigrant population even if they acquire French nationality. It is the country of birth, and not nationality at birth, that defines the geographical origin of an immigrant.

The labour force includes those persons of working age in employment and the unemployed. The labour force does not include those persons who declare themselves to be unemployed but state that they are not looking for work.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. A part of the change since 1999 in the labour force in employment may be linked to this change. In addition to this, young people on military service (when this status existed) formed a separate category of the labour force by convention.

For the purposes of the census, the labour force in employment (or occupied labour force) comprises those persons who declare themselves to be in one of the following situations :

The labour force in employment may be counted in the place of work or the place of residence.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. A part of the change since 1999 in the labour force in employment may be linked to this change, notably as regards persons under the age of 25 years or over the age of 55.

Legal marital status means a person’s marital status in the eyes of the law: single, married, widow(er), divorced. In census surveys, legal marital status corresponds to that declared by the person and may sometimes be different from their actual legal status. Living together or a Civil Solidarity Pact (PACS) are not a legal marital status.

NB

All persons under the age of 14 are considered to be single

This information is collected for each dwelling, whether it is in a collective building or not. A dwelling in a collective building with a lift may have been declared by its occupants as not being served by a lift (dwellings located on the ground floor or a mezzanine floor).

NB

In the 1999 census, this information was also available for the building as a whole. The disappearance of this information since 2004 may go some way towards explaining the trends since 1999.

The quantification of persons living together as a couple is based on the declaration made by each person in the census questionnaire, without reference being made to whether they are living together in the same main residence, to the family structure of the household to which the person belongs or to their legal marital status. Living as couple as defined here does not have any systematic link with the notion of "couple" used to identify and characterise families.

NB

Since 2004, the question "Are you living together as a couple?" has been included in census surveys to provide a better insight into de facto couples. The determination of the couples within a household is based on the answer to this question and on the declared marital status, but also involves other criteria, notably that the people must be of different sexes and share the same main residence.

In a household containing at least one family, the main family is that to which the reference person of the household belongs. Any other family there might be is referred to as a secondary family

The main fuel used to heat the home may be :

A main residence is accommodation usually occupied as the main home by one or several people who form a household. The number of main residences is equal to the number of households.

This is the main type of transport used by those persons in employment to go to work.

The mortality rate is the ratio of the number of deaths in the year to the average total population of the year in question. It can be calculated over a period of several years but its value is always expressed on an annual basis.

The population is broken down into two broad groups: French / Foreigners.

A distinction is made among French nationals between :

The foreign population is defined according to a nationality criterion: any person residing in France who does not possess French nationality is foreign. Foreigners may acquire French nationality in the course of their life, according to the possibilities provided by the legislation. They then become French by acquisition.

Of the foreigners in France at the time of the census, only those having their permanent residence in France and those working or studying there (permanent workers, interns, students and their families if applicable) are counted, to the exclusion of seasonal workers and cross-border workers.

In addition, the foreign personnel (administrative, technical or service staff) of Embassies are counted, but not foreign members of the diplomatic corps. Neither tourists nor persons on short stays in France are counted in the census.

The natural increase (or natural population surplus) is the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths recorded over a period. The words “surplus” or “increase” are justified by the fact that in general the number of births is greater than that of deaths. The opposite can happen whereupon the natural increase becomes negative.

This includes all the cars at the disposal of the inhabitants of the main residence (household), except those for professional use exclusively.

This covers rooms used for dwelling (including the kitchen if its surface area exceeds 12 m2), as well as annexe rooms that are not set aside for third parties (service rooms, etc.). Rooms used exclusively for professional purposes are not counted, nor are hallways, corridors, bathrooms, etc.

The breakdown of the labour force in employment according to whether they hold a part-time or full-time job is performed on the basis of the declarations of the people concerned.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. This change may have an impact on the breakdown of the labour force in employment according to their working hours.

The period of interest here is the period in which construction was completed on the house or building in which the accommodation is located, as declared by the occupants in the population census survey. If different parts of the building date from different periods, respondents should give the period in which the largest inhabited section was completed.

NB

In the 1999 census, a consistency check was conducted of the period in which construction was completed on the various dwellings in a given building. The lack of information about the building means that this check can no longer be conducted.

On account of data collection being spread over five years, observations of buildings completed in the course of this five-year period are partial only.

This is the place of residence 5 years before the census survey. The people concerned are therefore those aged 5 years or more on 1st January of the year of the survey. Among these people, a distinction is made between those who lived :

By convention, the homeless, boatmen, persons living in mobile dwellings and persons in remand centres are considered as having had another dwelling in the municipality in which they are counted as their place of residence five years previously.

NB

Since 2004 and the introduction of the renovated census, children under the age of five are not included in the population likely to have migrated as they were not born on the reference date taken into account for determining the previous place of residence. In the previous censuses, they were allocated the previous place of residence of the mother of the family, the father of the family of the reference person of the household, as appropriate.

The place of study corresponds to the location of the education establishment where a person is enrolled for study. To summarise the information on commuting between home and the place of study, the following categories of place of study are used :

NB

Since 2004, with the renovated census :

The place of work is the geographical zone in which a person exercises his or her professional activity.

Certain workers, performing certain specific jobs such as “haulage driver”, “taxi driver” “travelling salesman”, “door-to-door salesman” or “fisherman” which require them to travel for work purposes with a certain regularity, are considered by convention as working in their municipality of residence.

The population figures that are presented correspond to all the persons having their main residence in the territory in question.

The population of the said territory comprises :

Since 2004, for a territory defined by administrative zoning, this corresponds to the municipal population of the territory in question, subject to any rounding off of figures. The concept of municipal population is defined by Decree n° 2003-485 published in the Official Journal of 8 June 2003 on the population census.

NB

Since 2004 and the renovated census, the concept of population has been modified slightly. Adult pupils and students living in boarding facilities and military personnel living in barracks while also having a personal residence are now counted in the community population of the municipality in which their establishment is located. Previously, they were attached to their family residence and therefore counted in the household population of the municipality of their family residence.

These changes can have two types of consequences :

This includes all persons not registered with an education establishment.

All individuals enrolled in an education establishment (including apprenticeships) for the current school year at the time of census data collection are considered part of the in-school population.

NB

Since 2004, with the renovated census :

These are all the powered two-wheel vehicles at the disposal of the persons living in the dwelling, except for those for professional use only.

NB

In 1999, there was no such exclusion.

The notion of professional status applies to the labour force in employment and makes a distinction between salaried and non-salaried workers. Salaried workers include private-sector employees, those of the civil service (State, local authorities, hospitals) and those of public or national companies and the social security. Non-salaried workers include freelancers and the self-employed, salaried corporate managers, CEOs or directors with a minority shareholding in limited-liability companies, and persons helping another person in their work without being paid (the latter are usually those who help a member of their family who is self-employed, without receiving a wage: farmers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, industrialists, the professions).

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. This change may have an impact on the breakdown of the labour force in employment according to their professional status.

Private-sector employees are grouped together with those of the civil service, as it had often become difficult to distinguish between the two due to changes in the status of certain State-owned companies.

Since 2004 and the introduction of the renovated population census, the wording of the questions on home helps has changed: there is no longer any explicit reference to “home help”, while a general question has been added about people helping another person without being paid for doing so. This may contribute to amplifying the sharp fall in the numbers in this category.

The census results refer to the highest qualification individuals state they have. The qualification categories that are used are as follows :

If the family comprises a couple, the reference person of the family is the man in the couple. In the case of one-parent families, it is the parent.

The reference person of the household is determined on the basis of the family structure of the household and the characteristics of the individuals comprising it.

a) In the main processing of the population census, the reference person of the household is automatically determined by means of a rule which only takes account of the three oldest persons in the household (ranked from oldest to youngest) and which considers their potential relationships :

b) In complementary processing of the population census, knowledge of the family ties within households serves to define the reference person of the household more precisely than in main processing. The rule for determining the reference person of the household is the following :

A reserved parking space (garage, indoor parking or car park space) is for the personal use of the household.

Dwellings are classified in three categories according to their sanitary facilities :

Dwellings are classified according to whether they have :

A sector of activity groups together manufacturing, commercial and service-sector companies that share the same main activity. This main activity is assessed on the basis of the classification of economic activities. The aggregated classification, NA 2008, replaced the compound economic classification (NES) on the occasion of the switch to NAF rev. 2.

This aggregate classification contains two "standard" levels (sections and divisions in 21 and 88 items respectively) which are now shared with the ISIC international classification, the European NACE rev. 2 and the French classification NAF rev. 2. Additional grouping levels are required, however, to meet the needs of compound data for economic analysis and publication.

The NA therefore comprises seven aggregation levels with 10, 17, 21, 38, 64, 88 and 129 items respectively.

The type of activity divides the population between the labour force and inactive persons. Among those in the labour force, a distinction is made between those in employment (including persons on apprenticeships or ion paid internships), also referred to as the occupied labour force, and the unemployed. Among those who are inactive, a distinction may be made between pupils, students, unpaid interns, retirees and those in pre-retirement and housewives or husbands.

NB

Since 2004, the census has taken more effective account of those persons in the labour force in employment, even in occasional or short-term employment, who are also students, retired or unemployed. A part of the change since 1999 in the labour force in employment may be linked to this change. In addition to this, young people on military service (when this status existed) formed a separate category of the labour force by convention.

The definition of unemployment for the purposes of the population census is different from those of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and of Pôle Emploi.

Census unemployment is higher than ILO-definition unemployment because persons who are not working sometimes declare that they are unemployed when they do not fulfil all the ILO criteria. You are therefore advised to think in terms of structure or relative positioning, whether you are analysing data for a given date or a trend.

The breakdown of the population by type of cohabitation only concerns those individuals belonging to a household (household population). It is based mainly on their situation in relation to any families (within the meaning of the population census) comprising the household they belong to. The population of households is thus broken down into the following categories :

The type of construction is specific to French Overseas Departments. It categorises dwellings according to the following types :

The type of dwelling breaks dwellings down into the following categories :

Families may be classified according to whether they comprise a couple or are a one-parent family. The following categories, which also take account of the individual characteristics of the family members, are used:

The following categories are used to classify the main type of heating of the home :

Households are classified in the following categories according to the family and individual characteristics of the persons in them:

NB

For the census, minors lodged elsewhere for their studies and spouses with another home for professional purposes are included in the household.

The scope of households changed slightly between the 1999 and 2004 census :

For the purposes of the population census, unemployed persons are persons aged 15 or over who declared themselves to be unemployed (either registered or not with Pôle Emploi) unless they have also explicitly declared that they were not looking for work.

NB

The definition of unemployment for the purposes of the population census is different from those used by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Pôle Emploi.

Census unemployment is higher than ILO-definition unemployment because persons who are not working sometimes declare that they are unemployed when they do not fulfil all ILO criteria. You are therefore advised to think in terms of structure or relative positioning, whether you are analysing data for a given date or a trend.

The unemployment rate of a class of individuals is the ratio between the number of unemployed persons in that class and the labour force in the class (occupied labour force and the unemployed).

NB

The unemployment rate of a class of individuals is the ratio between the number of unemployed persons in that class and the labour force in the class (occupied labour force and the unemployed).

Census unemployment is higher than ILO-definition unemployment because persons who are not working sometimes declare that they are unemployed when they do not fulfil all the ILO criteria. You are therefore advised to think in terms of structure or relative positioning, whether you are analysing data for a given date or a trend.

The categories of waste water disposal are the following:

A sewer system connection is via a pipe connected to a sewer. Open-air discharge cannot be classified in this category. Likewise, a septic tank or catchpit is not a sewer system.