Russia starts to count its heads

Russia has launched the population census project. The results of the census will be used for economic, financial and political plans of the country. Politicians will study the results to explore their electorate before the elections to the State Duma in 2011.

Many Russians are concerned about the cost of the project wondering how much the state budget will have to spend on the project entirely. Many others are surprises about the fact that the costs on the population census are included in the draft budget for 2011.

Russia Today: Russian census starts. No Jedi expected

Initial results of the population census are said to be exposed in April of 2011. The final results will be made public in the fourth quarter of 2012; their publication will be completed before the end of 2013.

According to the press service of the Russian Statistics Agency, the budget of the Russian Population Census counts nearly 17 billion rubles. This amount covers the period of six years. The adequate budget of 2010 stipulates 10 billion rubles: 70 percent of the amount is meant for salaries for the census personnel.

Nearly 633,000 people have been employed in the project. Each employee will be paid 5,500 rubles for 22 days of work ($183). Instructors will work for 31 days and will receive 8,170 rubles ($272). Those working at census stations will be paid 15,807 for 60 days ($526).

Mass media outlets urge people to check the IDs of census personnel to avoid swindlers. Many criminal incidents were reported in Russia during the previous census of 2002, when "census takers" robbed naïve individuals who agreed to show all their cash that they kept in their homes.

Andrey Mikhailov
Pravda.Ru
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