A critical view to population censuses being conducted in municipality organized settlements: Afyonkarahisar case

In our country fourteen general population censuses had been conducted as thefirst modern one in 1927 and the last one in 2000. Censuses have been conducted bythe State Institute of Statistics of Turkey (SIS), which is one of the most fundamentaland specialized institutes of our country and has necessary experience about thissubject and physical infrastructure and experienced staff appropriate to the standards ofUnited Nations. The censuses, which aim to identify the qualifications of the economic,social, cultural and demographic subjects of turkey population according to theadministrative division exactly and properly, cause various criticisms and disputes byboth scientific circles and public opinion. The situation includes 1997 population countand General Population Census 2000. The reason for the criticisms are mostly becauseof the accuracy of population amount in municipality organized settlements andadministrative districts.In this study, the acccuracy of the population statistics which were produced bythe (SIS) The State Instituteof Statistics have been tested by the second reliable source(House Determining Records). This sort of study is difficult to be carried out througoutthe country so that it had been limited with the case of Afyonkarahisar. According todata we got it had been understood that there are abnormal differences and they do notindicate the reality particularly in the population amount of municipality organizedsettlements. The most significant reason for this is the number 1580 MunicipalityLaw, which brought about firstly the isssue of being exposed to speculative acts inpopulation censuses and many issues such as losing its currency and being unable toanswer to necessities. On account of these, Municipality Law had been arranged againand the number 5393 Municipality Law had been implemented. However, the articles,which prepare the share given by the central budget according to total populationamount and the population amount in order to set up new municipality, should bealtered. Besides, if the staff in charge of census behave properly for the rules so as notto influence the census? data results and making the nation conscious of the necessity ofthe census will facilitate the solution to the problem.