UNHCR STATISTICS TECHNICAL SERIES: 2019/1 The following sections provide an overview of sources and methods used for UNHCR’s published annual countrylevel figures of statelessness. Data sources include UNHCR own operational data, governments, NGOs, and unspecified combinations of the aforementioned. Chapters on each source is organized according to the methodological and population categories delineated by the Population Statistics Reference database 4. As elaborated in the following section, these methods span “registration”, “census”, “survey”, other estimation techniques (“estimate” in the database), and unspecified methods (“various/other” in the database). Population types includes “stateless” (presumed de jure), “de facto stateless”, and “undetermined” populations. Platforms for data collection and dissemination UNHCR collects country-level data on stateless populations together with data on other groups of persons of concern (such as refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs) in its Population Statistics Reference database. UNHCR country offices report on numbers and demographic composition of the different groups of populations of concern twice a year, for reference dates 31 December in the Annual Statistical Reporting (ASR) and 30 June in the MidYear Statistical Review (MYSR). The resulting data tables are verified by UNHCR’s Field Information Coordination and Support Section (FICSS), published in the PopStats database,5 and used for the Global Trends Report 6, the Mid-Year Trends Report,7 and associated annex tables. UNHCR country offices obtain yearly figures on the number of stateless persons at the cutoff dates from a wide range of methods and sources, and data uploaded to UNHCR’s Population Statistics Reference database elaborates on methods and source information in most cases. Annual statistical reporting on statelessness typically derives from a combination of administrative registers maintained by national statistics offices and line ministries; nationality determination and other registration procedures; census data; household surveys; UNHCR initiatives; civil society and NGO data; and other internal estimates. Within this reporting process, UNHCR’s Population Statistics Reference database organizes methodology across “Source” and “Basis”. Source refers to the primary data processing institution and includes government, UNHCR and NGOs as well as combinations of these. Basis denotes the data collection method and includes registration, censuses, household surveys, other techniques described as “estimates”, as well as unspecified combinations of these methods described as “various/other”. Supplementary descriptions, comments, and footnotes specify notable characteristics and anomalies of the enumerated populations, reporting timelines and methods used. However, figures in the database resulting from the same sources and methods are in many cases annotated with different methods and sources. For example, extrapolated and adjusted census data is correctly categorized as census data for some years and countries, but as UNHCR estimates or government registration in others. Estimates of the 2 4 https://popdata.unhcr.org/ 5 http://popstats.unhcr.org/ 6 2018: https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2018/# 7 2018: https://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/5c52ea084/mid-year-trends-2018.html UNHCR / October, 2019