Series: MZ

Germany

Due to the federal organization of the German statistical system, the federal statistical office cooperates with the statistical offices of the Länder. The planning and preparation of the Microcensus is carried out by the Federal Statistical Office. The statistical offices of the Länder are responsible for conducting surveys and preparing the data.

All persons in Germany who have right of residence, living in private households or collective households, at their main and secondary residence. (The survey population does not include members of foreign armed forces or the diplomatic corps and their families. Because the Microcensus uses an area sampling design, homeless persons have no chance of inclusion in the survey.)

Sampling method:

Single-stage stratified cluster sampling (since 1972)

Sampling fraction:

Core program: 1 % of the residential population

2005-2011: Ad hoc modules 0.1 %; EU labour force survey structural variables 0.1 %

2012-2019: Ad hoc modules 0.1 %; EU labour force survey structural variables 1 %

2020: Labour Force Survey (LFS) maximum 45 % of total sample; Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) maximum 12 % of total sample (collected separately up to and including 2019).
Beginning in 2021: Labour Force Survey (LFS) maximum 45 % of total sample; Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) maximum 12 % of total sample (collected separately up to and including 2019); Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in households maximum 3,5 % of total sample (collected separately up to and including 2020).

Sampling frame:

Up to 2015 the master sample for the old federal states was based on results of the 1987 Census of Population and for the new federal states and East Berlin on results from the "Bevölkerungsregister Statistik 1990" (statistics derived from the central population register) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 2016 onwards the 2011 Census serves as selection basis for the Microcensus. The master sample is updated annually by taking new construction activities into account. Since 1990, updating has been carried out by drawing a new-construction sample from building activity statistics. In the 1972–1989 rounds of the Microcensus, the supplementary sample was realised either on the basis of interviewers' reports of new construction activity in the sampled municipalities or on the basis of zoning maps.

Primary sampling units:

The sampling districts (primary sampling units) are artificially delimited areas (clusters) comprising, as a rule, neighbouring buildings; in the case of larger buildings, only one building, or a subdivision thereof, is included. Up to the 1989 Microcensus, a sampling district comprised, on average, 23 dwellings. To enhance regionalisability, the average size of the sampling districts was reduced in 1990. Since then, the average sampling district comprises 9 dwellings. The target size for sampling districts in the collective-household building stratum is 15 persons.

Partial rotation:

1974-1977: Rotation halves remained in the sample for two years; each year half of the sampling districts were replaced.

1977-2019: Each sampling district remains in the sample for four years. Each year, a quarter of the sampling districts are replaced by newly introduced sampling districts. 

Since 2020: Sampling districts can be surveyed up to four times. Each year, approximately 30 percent of the sampling districts drop out, while a correspondingly large proportion rotate into the survey. Private households in sampling districts that are part of the LFS subsample are surveyed repeatedly during the year (surveyed repeatedly for two consecutive quarters, then not surveyed for two quarters, then surveyed again for two consecutive quarters). These households thus rotate out of the current sample more quickly. Institutional households in LFS sampling districts are interviewed only in the first and third survey waves and in the fourth if it falls in a first calendar quarter.

Households and persons moving out of the sampling district are not followed but rather replaced by households and persons moving into the sampling district. The Microcensus is therefore a repeat survey with partial overlapping of sampling units. The rotation quarter to which a respondent belongs is not identifiable in the basic and regional Scientific Use Files (SUFs). Since 1996, it has been legally possible to aggregate the cross-sectional data to form a panel data set. Two panel data sets are available as SUFs for panel analyses: 1996-1999 and 2001-2004. A new procedure for the subsampling and time-consistent identifiers allows researchers to independently create panel files from the Scientific Use File 2012 onwards (see also: Microcensus Scientific Use Files from 2012 onward as a Rotational Panel). As a qualification, it needs to be mentioned that a new sample was drawn in 2016, so that panel files can be created only from 2012 up to 2015. Furthermore, panel files from 2016 onwards are limited to the period up to 2019, as the Microcencus and other household statistics have been converted to a fundamentally new system from 2020 onward.

Until and including 2019, the surveys were usually collected via personal interviews (either paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI) with the help of a paper-based questionnaire or – since the 1990s – computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) using a laptop). CAPI has been universally used since the 2005 Microcensus. Some respondents complete a self-administered questionnaire or participate via telephone interview (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview, CATI). Since 2020, the survey has been conducted increasingly by methods without face-to-face contact. The new option of participating in the survey via online form (Computer Assisted Web Interview, CAWI), which was introduced in 2020, is also frequently used.

Sampled households and their members are obliged by law to provide information for the Microcensus. However, response to some items is voluntary. The Microcensus is a household survey. In other words, all members of the household are interviewed in person, or one adult member responds on behalf of the other household members, including all minors (proxy interview). The data collected are processed by the statistical offices of the federal states and aggregated into a single data set by the Federal Statistical Office. Further processing steps are also carried out centrally by the Federal Statistical Office.

Survey programmes and sampling fractions:

• 1962-1972 [.pdf]

• 1973-1985 [.pdf]

• 1985-1995 [.pdf]

• 1996-2004 [.pdf]

• 2005-2016 [.pdf]

• 2017-2020 [.pdf]

Ad-hoc-Modules since 2005:

• 2005: Reconciliation between work and family life

• 2006: Transition from work into retirement

• 2007: Work related accidents, health problems and hazardous exposure

• 2008: Labour market situation of migrants

• 2009: Entry of young people into the labour market

• 2010: Reconciliation between work and family life

• 2011: Employment of disabled people

• 2012: Transition from work into retirement

• 2013: Accidents at work and other work-related health problems

• 2014: Labour market situation of migrants and their immediate  descendants

• 2015: Work organisation and working time arrangements

• 2016: Young people on the labour market

• 2017: Self-employment

• 2018: Reconciliation between work and family life

• 2019: Work organisation and working time arrangements

• 2020: Accidents at work and other work-related health problems

Guidelines for the Factual Anonymization of Particular Statistical Microcensus Information (From the appendix to the standard contract of the Federal Statistical Office regarding the dissemination of Microcensus data)

1. In accordance with the Microcensus Act, direct identifiers, such as personal identification numbers, names, addresses, telephone numbers, or any other official numbers that permit identification of persons from the data may not be distributed. Therefore, they may not be contained in the data file.
2. The dataset must be transmitted in an unsystematic order.
3. Only a randomly generated 70% subsample may be distributed.
4. The only direct regional data to be given are those of the respective German state.
5. In the "community size" category, no individual community with a population of less than 500,000 may be identifiable. If there are multiple communities in the same category, they must together comprise at least 400,000 inhabitants in every German state.
6. The citizenship or nationality of groups in the Federal Republic of Germany with less than approximately 50,000 persons are not to be identifiable.
7. In its univariate distribution within the statistical population, each category trait must include an aggregate of at least 5,000 cases. If this precondition is not met, then a statistically appropriate simplification or aggregation is needed in order to reach the required number of cases.

To item 3: The Microcensus Scientific Use File (SUF) is a de-facto anonymised 70 percent subsample of the households in the Microcensus. Until 2011, households or dwellings were primary sampling units of the Microcensus, with all persons of a selected household or dwelling being included in the sub-sample. Dwellings were drawn in the survey years in which the 4-year supplementary programme on housing (1998, ..., 2010) was carried out. The basis for the systematic random selection is the original data of the Federal Statistical Office. From 2012, the primary sampling units for the sub-sample are the sampling districts within a rotational quarter.

Federal Statistics Act (BStatG)

Surveys for official statistics are regulated by the Federal Statistics Act. The Federal Statistics Act also regulates the dissemination of data to the scientific community. The official surveys from the 1950s to the present cover a timeframe that can be divided into several periods with regard to the respective applicable legal laws (information on periods before 1950 see: Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv 88 (4): 473-486).

• Gesetz über die Statistik für Bundeszwecke von 1953 (StatGes 53; last amendment in 1976), which regulated the entire organizational and procedural law of federal statistics for the first time.
• Gesetz über die Statistik für Bundeszwecke von 1980 (BStatG 80), with new regulations on statistical confidentiality and the consideration of laws on data protection (extended by the Federal Court of Justice’s census verdict of 15.12.1983).
• Bundesstatistikgesetz 1987 (BStatG 87).
• Currently valid Federal Statistics Law

Microcensus Law and Legislative Decrees

For the implementation of specific federal statistics, an additional specific legal principle is needed. The legal basis of the Microcensus is the Microcensus Law. Additional programs, for example, can be included through legislative decrees. In the course of the history of the Microcensus since 1957, there have been several Microcensus laws and legislative decrees. For the development phases of the Microcensus, see Lüttinger/Riede, 1997 [.pdf] and Emmerling/Riede 1997 [.pdf].

• Currently valid Microcencus Law
• An antichronological list of amendments to the Microcensus Law and legislative decrees can be found on the following page (as of 06.11.2018).

EU Regulations

Additional information may be collected on the basis of European Community regulations. The Metadata Report Part 1 on the Microcensus (Section 1.2) contains a list of the relevant regulations.

Extrapolation in the Microcensus follows a two-stage procedure. The first stage – correction, or compensation, for non-response – entails extrapolating from the net sample of successfully surveyed households to the gross sample of all households on the basis of the design weight. In the second stage – adjustment – the weighted sample is adjusted to conform to benchmark figures from the intercensal population estimates (laufende Bevölkerungsfortschreibung). Depending on the methods used, the two-stage procedure yields different extrapolation factors for the individual survey years.

Microcensus Scientific Use Files can be ordered for a commitment fee from the Research Data Centres of the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the federal states. Since 1st of January 2011, the commitment fee is 250 euros per file and survey year (under certain conditions, discounts are granted for doctoral candidates and students).

The researchers who are authorized to access and use the data must be obligated to maintain confidentiality. This special obligation usually applies to civil servants (university); otherwise, it has to be carried out by the Federal Statistical Office. Furthermore, the institution/researcher that receives the data has to establish technical and organizational data security measures.

It must be stated that due to legal reasons (according to § 16, Abs. 6 - 8 BStatG), the anonymized individual data cannot be circulated to institutions beyond the Federal Republic of Germany. Microcensus guidelines restrict the place of data usage to Germany. However, foreign researchers, under approved, special circumstances, have the opportunity to work with the data at the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the Länder or via remote execution.

For further information see: https://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en/terms-use

Available Data

Data Access

Application

Forschungsdatenzentrum der Statistischen Ämter der Länder
- Geschäftsstelle -
c/o Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen
Postfach 10 11 05
40002 Düsseldorf
forschungsdatenzentrum@it.nrw.de

Forschungsdatenzentrum des Statistischen Bundesamtes
- Forschungsdatenzentrum -
Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11
65180 Wiesbaden
forschungsdatenzentrum@destatis.de

In 2005 the mode of data collection was changed and data was no longer collected during a set timeframe but during the entire year. Due to this change results from 2005 onward are only partially comparable to prior studies. To improve the implementation of the ILO Labour-Force-Concept since 2005 the questions on labour force participation as well as the field work were adapted. Comparisons over time thus might be influenced by changes in methodology (For more information see: Statistisches Bundesamt, 2012: Methodeninformation. Mikrozensus und Arbeitskräfteerhebung: Ergebnisse zur Erwerbstätigkeit ab dem Jahr 2011. Wiesbaden [.pdf] (in german)).

Since a new sample was drawn for the 2016 Microcensus, comparability with previous years is limited.

Due to fundamental methodological changes and problems with data collection in 2020 (and to a lesser extent also in 2021), comparability with previous years is limited.

Further information can be found on the pages for the respective Microcensus study as well as in the Microcensus quality reports.

The integrated EU-Labour Force survey (LFS) and the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), which has been integrated since 2020,

allows for comparisons with other EU member states. The Microcensus data allows for comparisons at the level of federal states (Bundesländer) as well as more fine grained regional units.