Next Census to Include Home Ownership Questions

For the first time, it was decided that the Census on Population, Households and Housing Units, which is conducted every five years on every household, would measure whether a tenant possesses a house and whether a house owner living in one’s own house has other houses at the same time.

So far, questions on self-ownership, full-deposit system, monthly rent and other residential questions have been asked, but from now on, questions on house ownership will be asked to find out the number of houses one household owns nationwide.

Along with this, additional questions will be attached to support welfare policies such as childbearing policies in the future. The National Statistical Office (NSO) said on July 19 that sampling and complete enumeration would include this for the new version of census to be conducted from November 1 to 15.

The major characteristic of the new census is that a new category has been added asking tenants if they possess other houses, and asking homeowners if they own other houses. As such, it would be easy to figure out the number of households without a house and that of multi-house owners.

However the NSO has decided to only ask whether they do so or not as the sensitive question might offend the public, leading to possibly wrong answers, especially to the questions asking the number of houses owned and where they are located.

One NSO official said, “Although it would be hard to figure out the number of houses owned, such a new category of questions was added to meet the government’s request to get a broader picture of the status quo on house ownership.

In addition, recent housing policies will focus more on the quality of housing than the home ownership rate, and raise questions on residential floors such as underground, attic, and ground floors.

Moreover, the agency has decided to figure out the number of babies a couple has in mind, and the number of sick among the population who have been unable to move for six months due to dementia and/or strokes in order to gather data for a welfare policy in preparation for the time when the nation becomes an aging society with a reduced population.

Chang-Won Kim changkim@donga.com