Frequently Asked Questions
Legislation |
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| 8.1. | Are household members required to answer the questions in person? |
| 8.2. | Can I refuse to answer any question? If no, why? |
| 8.3. | When will the completed questionnaires be destroyed? |
Interactive Data Dissemination Service |
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| 10.1. | What is Interactive Data Dissemination Service (IDDS)? |
| 10.2. | How can I enter the IDDS system? |
| 10.3. | How can I learn more about the use of the IDDS? |
| 10.4. | I have some questions on using the IDDS, where can I find the answers? |
e-Questionnaire |
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(a) General information |
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| 3.1. | What is e-Questionnaire (e-Q)? How can I use it? e-Questionnaire is an online system to facilitate the public in providing the information required for the 2011 Population Census electronically. All households issued with a notification letter (selected for either simple enumeration or detailed enquiry) can use e-Questionnaire. Those who wish to do so are required to complete a simple online registration by activating their e-Questionnaire account using the information provided on the questionnaire (for those selected for simple enumeration) or the notification letter (for those selected for detailed enquiry) starting from 30 June 2011. After registration, they can fill in their e-Questionnaire. |
| 3.2. | Who can use the e-Questionnaire (e-Q)? Any restriction to the age of users? Can children complete the e-Q themselves? Information required by the population census should be provided by the household members concerned personally. Persons aged under 15 , or those who cannot personally answer the questions due to illness, disability, being not in Hong Kong throughout the whole census period or any other sufficient reasons may have their household head or other adult household members (excluding domestic helpers) reports the information on their behalf. Besides, you may provide information on behalf of the household members from whom authorisation has been obtained. |
| 3.3. | Can I register for using e-Questionnaire (e-Q) if I do not have an email address?
Households must provide a local contact telephone number and an email address to register for the e-Q. The information is required for identity verification when an e-Q user account is frozen due to password forgotten and the user wants to apply for account re-activation. |
| 3.4. | Where can I find the procedures of filling in and submitting the e-Questionnaire (e-Q)? Is there an illustration for reference? Please refer to the e-Q online demonstration and usage guide from the website of the 2011 Population Census (http://www.census2011.gov.hk). |
(b) System requirements and technical issues |
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| 3.5. | What is the system requirement for e-Questionnaire? You should be able to access the e-Questionnaire using one of the most popular browsers in the market. Please refer to the following link for details. |
| 3.6. | What is the recommended screen resolution for viewing e-Questionnaire webpages? e-Questionnaire is best viewed with screen resolution set to 1024 x 768. The texts could not be fully displayed or printed if resolution was set to 800 x 600. To print the content of the screen, please set the paper orientation to landscape. |
| 3.7. | Why are some Chinese characters not displayed on the e-Questionnaire? e-Questionnaire adopts Unicode 3.0 and Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) as the encoding standard for Chinese characters. Therefore, client workstations have to support Unicode 3.0 and HKSCS in order to display the Chinese characters (including HKSCS) in e-Questionnaire. For more information about Chinese characters and HKSCS, please refer to:
FAQs about GovHK Online Services - Other Technical Questions and Trouble Shooting |
| 3.8. | Why some Chinese characters still cannot be displayed, even though I have installed the HKSCS on my Apple computer?
It is known that the HKSCS from Apple does not support the full set of HKSCS. You may consult the dealer concerned for more details. |
| 3.9. | Why some Chinese characters cannot be displayed when I re-open a webpage that I have saved?
In order to save the Chinese characters on a webpage properly, “Unicode” or “Unicode (UTF-8)” must be chosen as the encoding scheme (not applicable for Firefox) and HTML format should be selected. |
| 3.10. | Why can't I install the HKSCS downloaded from Digital 21 web site on my Linux computer?
It is known that some Linux distributions would encounter problem in installing the HKSCS modules. You may consult the dealer concerned to see if there is any alternative. |
| 3.11. | Why in some situations, the number of Chinese characters that can be inputted using Microsoft Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows 7 is less than that in other Windows platforms, such as Windows XP?
With the new character-coding standard adopted by Windows Vista and Windows 7, some Chinese characters occupy 4 bytes instead of 2 bytes. When these Chinese characters are inputted, the browser wrongly interprets a 4-byte character as two 2-byte character. Hence, the number of characters that can be inputted is less than that in other Windows platforms. |
| 3.12. | Can I use e-Questionnaire (e-Q) with smartphone?
e-Q currently does not provide a tailor-made version for smart phone. Using the current web version, the e-Q contents may not be fully displayed on the small screen of smart phones. As such, we do not recommend households using e-Q on their mobile phone / smart phone. |
| 3.13. | Is broadband facilities required to access e-Q?
Not necessary. Either broadband or 56K dial-up users can use e-Q, but generally speaking, broadband service can provide a smoother and faster operation than dial-up service. |
| 3.14. | Is the e-Questionnaire (e-Q) of the 2011 Population Census accessible for the visually impaired?
Throughout the development of e-Q, we have placed significant priority on its accessibility. The e-Q conforms to priority 2 level (Double-A conformance) of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This means that it meets both basic and advanced accessibility standards and can be used by most people with special needs. Besides, the e-Q adopts the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and style templates, which standardise all system web pages, and thus enhance the accessibility. |
| 3.15. | How can I verify the website I am visiting is the official website of e-Questionnaire for the 2011 Population Census?
You may follow the steps below to check the e-Certificate of the website. i. Click the padlock icon on the right-hand side of the website address
ii. Click “View certificates”.
iii. Check the website information contained in the e-Certificate. Correct information of the e-Q is shown in the circle on the certificate below.
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(c) Data security |
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| 3.16. | How to ensure the security and confidentiality of personal information in the e-Questionnaire (e-Q)?
Data confidentiality is a major concern of the Census and Statistics Department in conducting statistical surveys. According to the provisions of the Census and Statistics Ordinance, it is an offence to disclose information pertaining to individual person or household to unauthorised persons. Census and Statistics Department adopts the following measures to safeguard the confidentiality of information pertaining to individual person in the e-Q: (1) password is required to login the e-Q account; (2) information entered is encrypted before transmission over the Internet; and (3) a set of clear procedures is devised for the processing of the survey data. All staff must comply with this set of procedures to ensure the security and confidentiality of information pertaining to individual person in the e-Q. |
| 3.17. | What do I need to know about data protection when using e-Questionnaire?
e-Questionaire uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt data during network transmission to protect your personal data. All personal data you provide to the Census and Statistics Department via e-Questionnaire are secured, and access to them is restricted to authorised personnel only. For useful tips on information security, visit the following pages on the InfoSec website:
◦ Points to note when handling your personal information |
| 3.18. | Can I use public computer facilities (e.g. computers provided by the Hong Kong Public Libraries) to complete the e-Questionnaire (e-Q)?
Although data in the e-Q which contain personal information are encrypted before transmission over the Internet, the use of public computer facilities for completing e-Q is not recommended for security reasons. |
| 3.19. | How to avoid providing data in a fraudulent website?
Please enter the 2011 Population Census website (http://www.census2011.gov.hk) shown on the notification letter in the website address bar of Internet browser. Do not use the hyperlinks provided by suspicious emails or websites to enter the site. The Census and Statistics Department will not ask the public to fill in the census data via email. |
(d) Tips in system operation |
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| 3.20. | What should I do if I forgot my password or my account has been frozen after 5 unsuccessful login trials?
You need to re-activate your account through the Internet. Our system will verify with you some basic information that you have provided in the registration. A new “Activation Key” will be mailed to you. You can then use it to re-activate the account and re-set the password. |
| 3.21. | Why do I encounter error when clicking the “Refresh”, “Back” button or other hot keys of the browser?
Under normal operation, the buttons, address bar and the hot keys of the browser are disabled by the system. However, these buttons, address bar and hot keys may be enabled again by some external means. Anyhow, you should never use these buttons, address bar and hot keys, as this would affect the normal operation of e-Questionnaire. |
| 3.22. | Why does the system always direct me to a webpage with message "Your login session has been closed for system security reasons (e.g. session time-out). Please click the button below to return to the homepage and then login again." when I try to login?
Please check the setting of your browser to ensure Cookies have been enabled. |
| 3.23. | I always receive the pop-up screens warning me about security. How should I get rid of it?
Please refer to the steps on the following webpage: |
| 3.24. | Why can't I login e-Questionnaire (e-Q) again after the browser is closed?
If you have logged in e-Q and closed the browser without clicking the “Logout” button, the account will still remain in the " login" status, you cannot re-login the e-Q at once. The system will apply a time-out function to end the session automatically after 20 minutes. Therefore you can login the e-Q again after around 20 minutes. You should click the “Logout” button before closing the browser to avoid such situation. |
| 3.25. | I cannot clearly identify the characters shown on the verification code label, how can I input verification code correctly?
The purpose of entering verification code is to prevent machine-generated login. You may either click the speaker button to listen to the characters spelt out by the system or click on “click here to reload” for another group of characters. |
| 3.26. | Would the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) contact me via email?
For users who have registered e-Questionnaire (e-Q) before but not yet submitted the e-Q, C&SD will send an e-mail in due course to remind them to submit the e-Q as soon as possible. However, C&SD will not ask households to submit information by e-mail. If there is any above-mentioned case, please call the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre at 2153 2011 immediately for follow-up. |
| 3.27. | I have suspended using the e-Questionnaire for a while to handle some other matters. Upon return, I find that the system has logged out. What should I do?
If users neither make any request for action by the system nor enter data for 20 minutes, the system will automatically log out. Users need to log in the system again. |
| 3.28. | When I try to view a PDF document, why nothing is shown but a blank window?
i. Start Acrobat Reader, click "Reference", in "Categories" choose "Internet"
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(d) Tips in system operation |
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| 3.29. | How can I know that the e-Questionnaire (e-Q) is successfully submitted to the Census and Statistics Department?
When the e-Q has been successfully submitted, an acknowledgement message with an Acknowledgement Reference Number will be displayed on screen. You may print or save the Acknowledgement Reference Number for your reference. The Census and Statistics Department will not send confirmation emails to users. |
| 3.30. | Why are my data in e-Q cleared after account re-activation?
For further strengthen data security and protection of privacy, users can choose, during registration, to keep or erase the data kept in e-Questionnaire when the account is re-activated. If you chose to erase the data, all the previously inputted data would be erased automatically after the account is re-activated. |
| 3.31. | Can I change to use e-Questionnaire (e-Q) after I have booked an appointment for face-to-face interview?
You can login the e-Q to cancel the appointment at least two days prior to the appointment day and choose using e-Q for providing information for the 2011 Population Census. |
| 3.32. | Is it necessary to complete the entire e-Questionnaire (e-Q) in a single login session? Can an incomplete e-Q be saved for completion later?
Users can complete and submit the e-Q immediately after the registration. If information of some household members is not available, you can save the entered information and then log out. Once the Information available, you can login the system as "Existing User" using the password you have created to fill in and submit the e-Q. |
| 3.33. | What does the blue circle icon with an "i" at the centre appearing in some questions in e-Questionnaire (e-Q) mean?
Users can click the icon for supplementary information on the question concerned prompted on a separate screen. |
| 3.34. | Why does the system stay on the same page instead of proceeding to the next question after I have clicked the "Save and Continue" button?
Please check whether there is any missing information, logical mistake or inconsistency in the information provided. There will be a red exclamation mark shown beside the question and a warning message shown at the top of the screen. |
| 3.35. | What should I do if information on the household or household members have to be amended after the registration?
Users may login the system as "Existing User", and then click "Basic Information" on the left of the screen to access the page of household basic information and enter the correct information. |
| 3.36. | Do I need to re-enter information if I have been disconnected from the e-Questionnaire due to network problem during form-filling?
When users finish a page of e-Questionnaire and then click the "Save and Continue" button, the system will save the entered data and show the next question. Saved data need not be re-inputted no matter users properly log out the system or are disconnected due to network problem. |
| 3.37. | What should I do if I found that there are some mis-reported information in my submitted e-Questionnaire (e-Q) ?
After e-Q has been submitted, users cannot login the e-Q again and thus the submitted data cannot be amended through the e-Q. If there are mis-reported data in your submitted e-Q, you may call the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre at 2153 2011 to provide the correct data. |
| 3.38. | Will census officer visit my household after I submitted the e-Questionnaire (e-Q)?
E-Q submitted by households will undergo detailed checking. If necessary, census officers of our department will contact the households concerned for follow-up. |
| 3.39. | Can I proceed to a specific question directly without clicking the "Back" button?
No, you have to use the "Back" button. The current design faciltates the system to monitor question flow. |
| 3.40. | How can I amend the information on sex of a household member in e-Questionnaire?
Please click "Basic Information" on the left of the screen and amend the title of the household member concerned. The system will update the sex according to the title (e.g. male for "Mr.", female for "Mrs", "Ms" or "Miss"). |
Appointment for Face-to-face Interview |
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(a) General introduction |
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| 5.1. | How can I make an appointment request through the Department's on-line booking service?
The Census and Statistics Department will conduct the 2011 Population Census from 30 June 2011 to 2 August 2011. The Department sends out notfication letters to households on 23 June 2011 and the subsequent few days. Household members can login the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview through the 2011 Population Census website (http://www.census2011.gov.hk) using Household Reference Number, Household Account Number and Activation Key, which are printed on the notification letter (for long form households) or the questionnaire (for short form households). |
| 5.2. | What are the advantages of using appointment service?
The appointment booking service aims at facilitating households to book a convenient time for the interview. Households can login the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview (e-Appointment) through the 2011 Population Census website (http://www.census2011.gov.hk) and then follow the instructions to book a preferred time slot for interview. The e-Appointment operates 24 hours a day and is user-friendly. Households can also make an appointment through an operator of the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre by calling 2153 2011. |
| 5.3. | When does the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview start operation? What are the time slots available for booking?
The e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview starts operation on 8 July 2011. You can make an appointment request during the second phase of the 2011 Population Census (16 July 2011 to 2 August 2011), except for the last day (2 August 2011) which is reserved for our Census Officers to organize their work. Four time slots are available in each day, including 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm and 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The Census Officer will visit you according to your requested tiime slot. Households having special appointment requests may call the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre at 2153 2011 for assistance. Telephone enquiry service hours: 9:00 am - 10:30 pm, 23 June 2011 to 2 August 2011 (Monday to Sunday, including public holidays). |
| 5.4. | How many time slot can I choose each time?
Each household can select one preferred time slot for visit by census officer in each booking. Depending on the latest work situation of the Census Officer concerned during the selected time slot, the system will confirm whether the household has successfully made an appointment. |
| 5.5. | How do I know whether the appointment is confirmed?
After finishing the procedures for online appointment booking, the system will prompt you to confirm the appointment details as well as your personal information. After confirmation, an Acknowledgement Reference Number will be generated. Households can choose to save or print that page for their further reference. |
| 5.6. | Will personal information be stolen over the Internet when using the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview?
Households have to input Household Reference Number and Password in order to use the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview. All the information would be encrypted before transmission over the Internet. |
(b) System requirements and technical issues |
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| 5.7. | What is the system requirement for e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview (e-Appointment) ?
You should be able to access the e-Appointment using one of the most popular browsers in the market. Please refer to the following link for details. |
| 5.8. | What is the recommended screen resolution for viewing e-Appointment webpages?
e-Appointment is best viewed with screen resolution set to 1024 x 768. The texts could not be fully displayed or printed if resolution was set to 800 x 600. To print the content of the screen, please set the paper orientation to landscape. |
| 5.9. | Why are some Chinese characters not displayed on e-Appointment webpages?
e-Appointment adopts Unicode 3.0 and Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) as the encoding standard for Chinese characters. Therefore, client workstations have to support Unicode 3.0 and HKSCS in order to display the Chinese characters (including HKSCS) in e-Questionnaire. For more information about Chinese characters and HKSCS, please refer to: FAQs about GovHK Online Services - Other Technical Questions and Trouble Shooting |
| 5.10. | Why some Chinese characters still cannot be displayed, even though I have installed the HKSCS on my Apple computer?
It is known that the HKSCS from Apple does not support the full set of HKSCS. You may consult the dealer concerned for more details. |
| 5.11. | Why some Chinese characters cannot be displayed when I re-open a webpage that I have saved?
In order to save the Chinese characters on a webpage properly, “Unicode” or “Unicode (UTF-8)” must be chosen as the encoding scheme (not applicable for Firefox) and HTML format should be selected. |
| 5.12. | Why can't I install the HKSCS downloaded from Digital 21 web site on my Linux computer?
It is known that some Linux distributions would encounter problem in installing the HKSCS modules. You may consult the dealer concerned to see if there is any alternative. |
| 5.13. | Why in some situations, the number of Chinese characters that can be inputted using Microsoft Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows 7 is less than that in other Windows platforms, such as Windows XP?
With the new character-coding standard adopted by Windows Vista and Windows 7, some Chinese characters occupy 4 bytes instead of 2 bytes. When these Chinese characters are inputted, the browser wrongly interprets a 4-byte character as two 2-byte character. Hence, the number of characters that can be inputted is less than that in other Windows platforms. |
| 5.14. | Is the e-Appointment of the 2011 Population Census accessible for the visually impaired?
Throughout the development of e-Appointment, we have placed significant priority on its accessibility. The e-Appointment conforms to priority 2 level (Double-A conformance) of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This means that it meets both basic and advanced accessibility standards and can be used by most people with special needs. Besides, the e-Q adopts the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and style templates, which standardise all system web pages, and thus enhance the accessibility. |
| 5.15. | How can I verify the website I am visiting is the official website of e-Appointment for the 2011 Population Census?
You may follow the steps below to check the e-Certificate of the website. i. Click the padlock icon on the right-hand side of the website address
ii. Click “View certificates”.
iii. Check the website information contained in the e-Certificate. Correct information of the e-Appointment is shown in the circle on the certificate below.
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(c) Data security |
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| 5.16. | What do I need to know about data protection when using e-Appointment?
e-Appointment uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt data during network transmission to protect your personal data. All personal data you provide to the Census and Statistics Department via e-Questionnaire are secured, and access to them is restricted to authorised personnel only. For useful tips on information security, visit the following pages on the InfoSec website:
◦ Points to note when handling your personal information |
(d) Tips in system operation |
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| 5.17. | Why do I encounter error when clicking the “Refresh”, “Back” button or other hot keys of the browser?
Under normal operation, the buttons, address bar and the hot keys of the browser are disabled by the system. However, these buttons, address bar and hot keys may be enabled again by some external means. Anyhow, you should never use these buttons, address bar and hot keys, as this would affect the normal operation of e-Questionnaire. |
| 5.18. | Why does the system always direct me to a webpage with message "Your login session has been closed for system security reasons (e.g. session time-out). Please click the button below to return to the homepage and then login again." when I try to login?
Please check the setting of your browser to ensure Cookies have been enabled. |
| 5.19. | I always receive the pop-up screens warning me about security. How should I get rid of it?
Please refer to the steps on the following webpage: |
| 5.20. | When I try to view a PDF document, why nothing is shown but a blank window?
i. Start Acrobat Reader, click "Reference", in "Categories" choose "Internet"
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(e) Tips for appointment booking |
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| 5.21. | Do I require to make an appointment or wait for the visit by Census Officer at home?
It is not a must to make an appointment. Households need not worry to wait for the visit by Census Officer at home. During the second phase of the 2011 Population Census (16 July 2011 to 2 August 2011), Census Officers will conduct interviews for the households not choosing self-enumeration. In the first visit, our Census Officer will leave an appointment booking card showing his/her duty area and contact phone number to households that cannot be contacted. Households can call the Census Officer to arrange for another visit. |
| 5.22. | Can Household Reference Number, Household Account Number, Activation Key and password be changed?
Household Reference Number and Activation Key cannot be changed. However, households can set a password when using the system for the first time. After a password is set, the activation key is no longer valid. |
| 5.23. | How many days should I make the request before the appointment date?
You should make the request at least 2 days before the appointment date either through the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview or by calling the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre at 2153 2011. If you need to change or cancel your appointment, please make the request at least one day before the appointment date. Households with special appointment requests may call the 2011 Population Census Telephone Enquiry Centre. The operator will record the information and then transfer the case to the responsible enumerator for follow-up. But this booking cannot be confirmed on the spot. Census Officer will call the household for arrangement. |
| 5.24. | How can I find out whether the appointment is successfully made if the booking is suddenly terminated due to network or computer problem?
You can re-enter the system and click 'Enquire Appointment' on the left to see your appointment booking details. If no record is found, you must make the appointment again. Due to time-out function of the system, you may need to wait for 20-30 mins to login again after abnormal system termination. |
| 5.25. | If I have registered for e-Questionnaire, do I need to register again for using e-Appointment?
If you have registered for e-Questionnaire and have not submitted the questionnaire, you may use that account to login the e-Appointment for Face-toFace Interview by clicking "Existing User". The system will ask you to confirm whether you want to cancel the e-Questionnaire account or not. You may proceed to appointment booking after updating the basic information (if needed). In case you have submitted e-Questionnaire, you cannot use the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview. |
| 5.26. | Can I change or cancel appointment or enquire details of appointment booking which was made through on-line booking system via the enquiry line?
Yes. Housholds can either use the e-Appointment for Face-to-Face Interview or call the 2011 Population Census at 2153 2011 to make, change, cancel or enquire about appointment bookings. For change in or cancellation of appointment, the request should be made at least one day before the appointment date. |
| 5.27. | Is it the only way to make an appointment through the e-Appointment system? What should I do if I do not have computer at home?
Apart from using the e-Appointment service, households can make an appointment for face-to-face interview by calling 2153 2011 from 9:00am to 10:30pm, Monday to Sunday. |
Interactive Data Dissemination Service |
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| 10.1. | What is Interactive Data Dissemination Service (IDDS)?
The Interactive Data Dissemination Service (IDDS) is a service which enables the public to build and customise their own statistical tables online with data of population census / by-census. |
| 10.2. | How can I enter the IDDS system?
Please click the Start button on the “Build Your Census Tables” web page in the website of the 2011 Population Census (http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/build-your-census-tables.html) to enter the IDDS system. Alternatively, you may access it direct through the following hyperlink: http://itable.censtatd.gov.hk. |
| 10.3. | How can I learn more about the use of the IDDS?
Please refer to the usage guide and online demonstration of the IDDS which can be found on the “Build Your Census Tables” web page in the website of the 2011 Population Census (http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/build-your-census-tables.html). |
| 10.4. | I have some questions on using the IDDS, where can I find the answers?
You may refer to the frequently asked questions for the IDDS on the “Build Your Census Tables” web page in the 2011 Population Census website (http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/build-your-census-tables.html). In case you cannot find the answers to your questions, please contact the 2011 Population Census Office, Census and Statistics Department, by phone (tel: 2716 8025) during office hours or by email (census@censtatd.gov.hk). |