Policy Implications of Quality and Accuracy of Census and Vital Events Statistics

One of the responsibilities of demographers is to know how fertility, mortality and migration processes interact in determining population size, growth and changes. Iran has experienced extensive demographic changes during the past three decades. These changes led to a fundamental turn in the government's population policies. The non-expert encounter with the population phenomenon caused the discussion about it to be brought to the public sphere. As a result, determining population policy priorities became a pervasive issue in the country. Diagnosing the problem and putting it on the agenda is part of the policy-making process. In this article, focusing on the results of the General Population and Housing Censuses (GPHC) of Hamadan and Lorestan provinces in 2011 and 2016, as well as the statistics of vital events in these provinces during 2011-2016, we showed that the equation of population changes based on census statistics are not in balance with the statistics of vital events and net migration. In this situation, analyzing the determinants of population changes, determining policy priorities, and providing strategies for population management will be difficult and unrealistic. The findings emphasize the importance of assessing the quality of census and vital events statistics before making any decisions and policies for the population.