A nationwide census in Russia will not be postponed and will be held in October 2010, as previously planned, a deputy chief of Russian statistics service Rosstat said on Thursday.
The census was initially postponed until October 2013 due to the economic crisis. The government, however, resolved in November that the census should go ahead as scheduled, from October 14 to 25, on the grounds that it would help to shape Russia's social and economic policies in the post-crisis period.
In remote areas, home to some 500,000 Russians, the dates might slightly differ.
"We have remote areas, where the census will be held not during the estimated period of October 14-25, but a bit earlier or later," Alexander Surinov said.
The last census, conducted in 2002, showed the population in the country was 145.2 million people. According to Rosstat estimates, there were about 141.9 million people living in Russia in the first half of 2009, a fall of about 133,700 year-on-year.
MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
