The BiH Statistics Authority was scheduled to release the first set of data from the 2013 Census by June 15, but that deadline will be missed due to disagreements between the Authority and its entity counterparts. Specifically, the Republika Srpska Statistics Authority has voiced concerns that the BiH agency is disregarding methods and definitions established by the BiH census law. According to the RS, the applicable law is clear in its definitions of residency, but the BiH Statistics Authority is trying to establish its own definitions in the current analysis of the 2013 data.
“The Law on a Population Census clearly defines that permanent residents are persons who have permanently lived in their usual place of residence for at least 12 months before a referent census date or arrived in their usual place of residence 12 months before a referent census date with the intention to stay there for at least one year,” says the Authority.
The Law also clearly defines a usual place of residence as a place where a person lives and usually spends their daily rest, says the Authority, regardless of temporary absence for holidays, work, school, visits to relatives or friends, or religious pilgrimage.
Persons who have their usual place of residence here and are present, as well as persons who have their usual place of residence here but are temporarily absent, are included in the total population.
