Studies in methods – serie

International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008 Compilation Guide is a companion document to the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS 2008). The primary purpose of this Compilation Guide is to provide further clarifications and practical guidance for using sources and methods to compile statistics on tourism. It is designed to support the production of a high quality set of basic data and indicators in each country, and to strengthen the international comparability of tourism statistics. The Compilation Guide was prepared by national compilers of tourism statistics, experts from international and regional organisations, and by staff of UNWTO.

The publication is intended to serve as a reference document on management aspects of conducting a population and housing census. The handbook provides guidelines, mainly, for population and housing censuses based on traditional field enumeration. The objectives of the publication, in particular, are to provide guidance to countries on how to: (i) develop a structure able to effectively manage the census planning and operational processes; (ii) plan all the processes that need to be considered in establishing a census; and (iii) design control and monitoring processes. The publication is also useful to those who need to plan surveys given the detailed description of the overall process of collecting, processing, and disseminating the data. The structure of the handbook reflects as closely as possible the census cycle. The initial chapters discuss management aspects concerning the planning and preparatory stages, followed by discussions on the operational stages, i.e.: pre-enumeration activities, field operations, processing, dissemination of census results, evaluation and finally documentation and archiving

Acquiring knowledge of the size and characteristics of a country's population on a timely basis is a prerequisite to socioeconomic planning and informed decision making. Vital statistics and their subsequent analysis and interpretation are essential for setting targets and evaluating social and economic plans, including the monitoring of health and population intervention programmes, and the measurement of important demographic indicators of levels of living or quality of life, such as the expectation of life at birth and the infant mortality rate. Vital statistics can be produced solely from a full-functioning civil registration system as the only source able to ensure universal coverage and provide timely and continuous data. This Handbook offers background, specifications and practical examples for the improvement and/or establishment of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems. It presents model organizational and legal arrangements, as well as ideal descriptions, processes and protocols that are considered the gold standard