UNHCR STATISTICS TECHNICAL SERIES: 2019/1 Vis-à-vis these challenges, a key pattern lies in that government registration – in contrast to UNHCR registration that prioritizes casting a wide net to capture undetermined populations – does not typically record such populations. For example, countries in 2018 reported 12 de jure populations, 9 de facto populations, 2 undetermined populations, 7 combinations of stateless and undetermined populations and 5 combinations of de facto and undetermined populations. For registration by countries, undetermined populations tend to be categorized as such due to questionable methodology rather than population characteristics, in contrast to UNHCR reporting which mainly uses the category for those with ambiguous nationality status. As government registration tends to focus on enumerating populations known to be stateless, they report narrower figures compared to UNHCR for three main reasons. First, some countries with high statistical capacity make efforts to differentiate stateless populations from undetermined populations and other categories of concern, with others opting to report only the former. Second, many countries report pre-existing data that is readily accessible, such as data on residence permits from the Ministry of the Interior. Many population estimates resulting from such reporting procedures thus only include stateless persons with residence permits and permanent residence, leading to exclusion of the most vulnerable without any sort of documentation. Third, various countries seeking to expand data collection will target specific at-risk communities due to capacity constraints and general challenges for identifying stateless persons. As many efforts are geographically focused, exclusion may arise for stateless persons outside these areas. Differences in enumerated populations between UNHCR and government registration processes suggests a potential gap in priorities. Potential explanations include coordination issues related to the use of registration data across government agencies; governments believing narrower estimates to be more suitable for UNHCR’s statistical reporting; political priorities; limitations in capacity and resources; and combinations of the above. Censuses In 2018, 9 out of 78 reporting countries relied on census figures from years ranging from 2009 to 2016. Some report annually adjusted populations amid nationality confirmation procedures, and census estimates for undetermined populations alongside data on stateless persons registered by the Ministry of the Interior. While some countries exclusively reported census data, enumerated populations include a broad range of categories, including four undetermined populations, one de jure stateless population, one de facto stateless population, and two combinations of de facto stateless and undetermined populations. Based on existing records, at least 14 countries relied on census estimates at some point between 2009 and 2018. Although some countries only cited census data briefly before returning to previous reporting methodology such as government registration, most changes reflect increased political will and efforts to provide more timely data, such as implementation of nationality campaigns and statelessness determination procedures. Given the problems associated with lack of questions regarding statelessness and concerns regarding self-reporting, census data is also available across more countries than those who report it. 6 UNHCR / October, 2019