‘Permanent’ and ‘present’ populations in Soviet statistics

The USSR censuses of 1959 1970 and 1979 enumerated both the present and the permanent populations; however. the present population total is the one most often used in Soviet statistical sources for reporting the country and region populations. For every recent census these 2 population types have differed. This paper has 3 aims: 1) to describe the definitions and assumptions underlying the notions of population employed in the USSR census 2) to identify which popultaion concept is used in the census tabulations of the main population characteristics and 3) to identify which population concept is used in noncensus statistics. All persons in all dwelling places in a given territory at the critical moment are included in the present population of that area; all persons whose usual residence is in a dwelling place in a given territory comprise the permanent population of that territory. The difference between the size of the present and the permanent populations for the country as a whole should not be large. The censuses shifted from a present population basis in 1959 to a permanent population basis in 1979; this shift has potential to bear on territorial breakdowns of statistics and on breakdowns by population characteristics related to the probability of movement from 1 city or town to another. The inability of housing registers and household registries to supply complete information on temporarily absent families could lead to people being enumerated as "temporarily residing" in 1 location and not as "permanently residing" in another location. Individual census tables do not always indicate whether the data are based on present or permanent populations; therefore it is necessary to exercise caution when using USSR census statistics. A permanent population base includes more people indigenous to the area while a present population base includes more people who differ from the indigenous population partly because they have arrived only recently. In addition the existence of substantial differences between regions reduces the comparability of USSR vital events data across republics and increases the uncertainty about the consistency of USSR vital statistics in general.