Compare, HARMonise, Evaluate European censuses – CHARME

The population and housing census, through its concern for exhaustiveness, is an essential source of data on the socio-economic characteristics of individuals and households for working at precise levels. The European authorities have always wanted to use the censuses of EU countries as a basis for the social and economic policy of the European Union, whenever they aim at the objective of equitable treatment of populations across the European area. But they come up against the heterogeneity of census practices between the different countries, which have undergone significant transformations over the last 50 years. To what extent do national data collection practices, reflecting a certain social order, influence the comparability of data?
Initially, the research aims to analyse the development of Eurostat's harmonization process to make these data usable at European level, both in terms of data collection and the construction of indicators. Secondly, it will assess the comparability of the data made available since 2011 and, finally, the impact of the classifications adopted in the various countries. Thus, the research explores the possible consequences of these harmonization operations, which, while demonstrating a form of statistical rigor, are fraught with social issues. This will include studying the way in which the designers of these nomenclatures debate the relevance of the categories they propose and how they build consensus or deal with their differences.
The making of collectives such as Europe or Nation-states is directly affected by the use of the various objectification tools that take shape in particular from census data. Expert classification logics will thus be compared.