TIRANA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has granted 4.8 million euros (5.16 million U.S. dollars) in funding to the population and housing census to be conducted by the Albanian National Institute of Statistics' (INSTAT) in the country, the EU Ambassador in Albania Luigi Soreca said here on Wednesday.
Soreca said that the census is "important in the context of negotiations for Albania's EU membership."
"EU policies are based on reliable, comprehensive and comparative data," Soreca said.
The grant's objectives include providing expertise, capacity building and financial support for census management and organization.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said that "the conditions are ripe to start a process of such importance and to do it according to the European standards."
"A trained team of 7,500 people will collect the data nationwide," INSTAT's General Director Elsa Dhuli said.
The census will start on Sept. 18.
According to Dhuli, the census -- the 12th such exercise in Albania -- will cost around 16 million euros. The first results are scheduled to be published in late June 2024.
The census, originally scheduled for 2021, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous census was held in 2011. (1 euro = 1.07 U.S. dollar)
