According to the UN principles and Recommendations for population and housing census (Rev. 3), A population census is the total process of planning, collecting, compiling, evaluating, disseminating and analyzing demographic, economic and social data at the smallest geographic level pertaining, at a specified time, to all persons in a country or in a well‐delimited part of a country.

Housing census, on the other hand, is the total process of planning, collecting, compiling, evaluating, disseminating and analyzing statistical data relating to the number and condition of housing units and facilities as available to the households pertaining, at a specified time, to all living quarters and occupants thereof in a country or in a well‐delimited part of a country.