12. Other challenges that countries faced included timeliness in the release of census
results, public perception, low response rates, managing the outsourcing of census
operations and insufficient dissemination and exploitation of the results. In some
countries, there were quality concerns owing to problems with coverage. Assessing
the quality of census operations and of overall coverage, however, has remained a
challenge for many countries. Although the use of contemporary technologies is
considered to be the most successful aspect of the 2010 census round, there were still
challenges for a number of reasons, including lack of in-house technical skills and
insufficient planning.
13. Twenty-one countries did not conduct a census for the 2010 round owing to a
variety of challenges, the most prominent of which were political instability, which
may have hindered them from the planning and carrying out of census activities;
and lack of funding and inadequate planning and management of the census
operations.