
Article 1 
A temporary direct statistical action is hereby established in order to develop, produce and disseminate selected topics of the 2021 population and housing census geocoded to a 1 km2 grid (‘1 km2 grid data’).
To this end, a unique harmonised and constant geospatial reference grid for Europe is determined consisting of cells with an area of 1 km2. And the specific topics and their breakdowns are established as well as the detailed programme and metadata for the dissemination of 2021 population and housing census data geocoded to the 1 km2 reference grid.
Article 2 
For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 shall apply.
The following definitions shall also apply:

((1)) ‘grid’, ‘grid cell’ and ‘grid point’ mean grid, grid cell and grid point as defined in Annex II (2.1) of Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010;
((2)) ‘total population’ means all persons of a grid cell whose usual residence is located in that grid cell;
((3)) ‘data item’ means a single measurement contained in the table defined in Annex II of this Regulation;
((4)) ‘data value’ means the information provided by a data item. A data value can be either a ‘numerical value’ or a ‘special value’;
((5)) ‘numerical value’ means an integer number equal to or greater than ‘0’ that provides statistical information on the observation of that data item;
((6)) ‘validated data’ means data verified by the Member States according to agreed validation rules;
((7)) ‘observed value’ means a numerical value that represents observed or imputed information to the best of knowledge based on all available 2021 census information, in particular before the application of any statistical disclosure control measures;
((8)) ‘confidential value’ means a numerical value which, in order to protect the statistical confidentiality of the data, must not be divulged in accordance with the Member States' protective measures against disclosure of statistical data;
((9)) ‘special value’ means a symbol that is transmitted in a data item instead of a numerical value;
((10)) ‘flag’ means a code that can accompany a particular data item to describe a specific characteristic of its data value.
Article 3 

1. In accordance with Section 1.5 of Annex IV of Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010, the statistical 1 km2 reference grid for pan-European usage shall be the Equal Area Grid ‘Grid_ETRS89-LAEA1000’. The spatial extent of the reference grid in the coordinate system specified for this grid in Section 2.2.1 of Annex II of the same Regulation shall be limited to easting values between 900 000 and 7 400 000 metres and northing values between 900 000 and 5 500 000 metres for the purpose of this Regulation.
2. In accordance with Section 1.4.1.1 of Annex IV of the same Regulation, each individual grid cell of the 1 km2 reference grid shall be identified by a unique grid cell code, which is composed of the characters ‘CRS3035RES1000mN’. This is followed by the northing value in metres of the grid point in the lower-left corner of the grid cell, followed by the character ‘E’, followed by the easting value in metres of the grid point in the lower-left corner of the grid cell.
3. The country code of the transmitting Member State as defined in the Interinstitutional Style Guide published by the Publications Office of the European Union, followed by the character ‘_’, shall be prepended to the cell code of each grid cell transmitted by that Member State.
Article 4 
The technical specifications of the topics set out in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2017/543 for the 2021 census data shall apply. The breakdowns of the topics for the purpose of this Regulation are specified in Annex I of this Regulation.
Article 5 

1. The programme of the 1 km2 grid data to be transmitted by each Member State to the Commission (Eurostat) for the reference year 2021 is specified in Annex II.
2. Member States shall replace any confidential value with the special value ‘not available’.
Article 6 

1. In order to facilitate Union-wide comparability, the output data values to be disseminated shall be harmonised. To this end, preference shall be given to numerical values over special values as far as possible.
2. In order to ensure sufficiently accurate and reliable information on the spatial distribution of the total population, Member States shall respect the following requirements:
(a) data items on total population shall not be reported as confidential;
(b) data items on total population with an observed value other than ‘0’ shall be marked with the flag ‘populated’; and
(c) data items on total population with an observed value ‘0’ shall not be marked with the flag ‘populated’.
Article 7 
Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with metadata for the 1 km2 grid data in accordance with Annex III.
Article 8 
The reference date of the 1 km2 grid data transmitted by each Member State shall be identical to the reference date reported by that Member State in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2017/712.
Article 9 

1. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with validated and aggregated data and with metadata on total population by 31 December 2022.
2. Without prejudice to paragraph 1, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with validated and aggregated data and with metadata by 31 March 2024.
Article 10 
The technical format to be used for data and metadata transmission shall be the SDMX format as implemented through the Census Hub. Member States shall transmit the required data and metadata in accordance with the data structure definitions and related technical specifications provided by the Commission (Eurostat). They shall store the required data and metadata until 31 December 2034 for any later transmission requested by the Commission (Eurostat).
Article 11 

1. Member States shall ensure the quality of the data transmitted.
2. For the purposes of this Regulation, the quality criteria referred to in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 shall apply to the data to be transmitted.
3. At the request of the Commission (Eurostat), Member States shall provide it with additional information necessary to evaluate the quality of the statistical information.
Article 12 

1. The Commission (Eurostat) shall disseminate the 1 km2 grid datasets referred to in Article 5 as well as the associated metadata referred to in Article 7.
2. For the purposes of this Regulation, the programme of the 1 km2 grid data and metadata to be transmitted by Member States and disseminated by Eurostat corresponds to the data that Member States disseminate at national level in accordance with Directive 2007/2/EC and its implementing Regulations (EC) No 1205/2008, (EC) No 976/2009 and (EU) No 1089/2010.
Article 13 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 21 November 2018.
For the Commission
The President
Jean-Claude JUNCKER
ANNEX I
The technical specifications of the breakdowns for the purpose of this Regulation of the census topics specified in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543 shall be presented as follows:

— Each topic selected for dissemination on the 1 km2 reference grid is quoted with its heading from the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543.
— The technical specifications laid down in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543 referring to that topic in general shall apply.
— Thereafter, the breakdown for that topic is specified.
— All breakdowns are designed to break down any total or subtotal referring to persons.

The breakdown categories of this topic on which a Member State shall report are all cells of the 1 km2 reference grid specified in Article 3(1) whose area includes a part of the territory of that Member State, complemented by a single virtual grid cell per Member State to account for persons that are not allocated.


Geographical area based on the 1 km2 reference grid GEO.G.
x. All grid cells belonging partly or entirely to the territory of the Member State x.
y. One virtual grid cell per Member State y.


If the place of usual residence of a person is unknown within the territory of the reporting Member State that is covered by the reference grid, additional scientifically-based, well-documented, and publicly available statistical estimation methods may be used to allocate this person to a specific grid cell. Persons who are not allocated to any cell of the reference grid shall be allocated to the virtual grid cell GEO.G.y. of that Member State.

The breakdown SEX. specified in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543 for this topic shall apply for the purpose of this Regulation.

The following breakdown categories shall be reported:


Age AGE.G.
1. Under 15 years 1.
2. 15 to 64 years 2.
3. 65 years and over 3.

As specified in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543, the age reached in completed years of age at the reference date shall be reported.

The following breakdown category included in the breakdown CAS.L. specified in Regulation (EU) 2017/543 shall be reported:


Current activity status CAS.L.
1. Employed persons 1.1.

The specification of ‘employed’ persons in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/543 shall apply for this category.

The following breakdown categories included in the breakdown POB.L. specified in Regulation (EU) 2017/543 shall be reported:


Country/place of birth POB.L.
1. Place of birth in reporting country 1.
2. Place of birth in other EU Member State 2.1.
3. Place of birth elsewhere 2.2.

The following breakdown categories included in the breakdown ROY. specified in Regulation (EU) 2017/543 shall be reported:


Place of usual residence one year prior to the census ROY.
1. Usual residence unchanged 1.
2. Move within the reporting country 2.1.
3. Move from outside the reporting country 2.2.

A move within the same grid cell shall be reported either as a ‘Move within the reporting country’ (ROY.2.1.) or as a ‘Move from outside the reporting country’ (ROY.2.2.) as appropriate.

ANNEX II

The programme of the 1 km2 grid data to be transmitted for the reference year 2021 shall consist of one two-dimensional table that cross-tabulates the set of grid cells GEO.G. defined in Annex I against the following selection of categories from the census topic breakdowns specified in Annex I:

Census topic categories to be broken down on the 1 km2 reference grid STAT.G.
0. SEX.0.: Total population 0.
1. SEX.1.: Male 1.
2. SEX.2.: Female 2.
3. AGE.G.1.: Under 15 years 3.
4. AGE.G.2.: 15 to 64 years 4.
5. AGE.G.3.: 65 years and over 5.
6. CAS.L.1.1.: Employed persons 6.
7. POB.L.1.: Place of birth in reporting country 7.
8. POB.L.2.1.: Place of birth in other EU Member State 8.
9. POB.L.2.2.: Place of birth elsewhere 9.
10. ROY.1.: Place of usual residence one year prior to the census unchanged 10.
11. ROY.2.1.: Place of usual residence one year prior to the census: move within reporting country 11.
12. ROY.2.2.: Place of usual residence one year prior to the census: move from outside of the reporting country 12.

ANNEX III 1. 

((a)) ‘provisional’;
((b)) ‘populated’;
((c)) ‘revised’;
((d)) ‘see information attached’;
((e)) ‘confidential’.
 2. Only data values on ‘total population’ which are reported under Article 9(1) and which are not considered final data by the Member State at the time of reporting shall be accompanied by the flag ‘provisional’.
 3. The flag ‘populated’ shall be applicable only to ‘total population’ data items under the provisions specified in Article 6(2).
 4. For each data value accompanied by at least one of the flags ‘revised’ or ‘see information attached’ an explanatory text shall be provided.
 5. Each data item whose confidential value has been replaced by the special value ‘not available’ shall be marked with the flag ‘confidential’.

In addition to the metadata on the topics transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) under Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2017/712, Member States shall provide metadata on each topic included in Annex I informing about the data sources and methodology used to obtain the data values for that topic on the 1 km2 reference grid. In particular, the metadata shall contain:


— information on the reliability and accuracy of the reported data values;
— a description of any methodology used to estimate the data values on the 1 km2 reference grid, including reliability and accuracy of the resulting data values;
— a description of any methodology used to allocate persons to specific grid cells under the topic ‘place of usual residence’, including information on the characteristics of persons under the category GEO.G.y.

The metadata information and structure laid down in the Annex of Regulation (EU) 2017/881 shall be supplemented for the purpose of this Regulation by the following items specifically referring to the 1 km2 grid data:


— Item 3.3. ‘Processing and evaluation’ shall be supplemented by the additional sub-item 3.3.3. ‘Additional information on generic (not topic-related) methodology applied in order to produce the 1 km2 grid dataset’.
— Item 3.4. ‘Dissemination’ shall be supplemented by specific information about statistical disclosure control measures related to the 1 km2 grid dataset. Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with information about the measures related to the harmonised protection of 1 km2 grid data, in particular if they used the ESS good practices and implementation guidelines for the harmonised protection of 1 km2 grid data.
— Item 4.2. ‘Timeliness and punctuality’ shall be supplemented by specific calendar date(s) of the transmission and possible revisions of the 1 km2 grid data and metadata.
— Item 4. ‘Assessment of data quality’ shall be supplemented by the additional sub-item 4.7 ‘Geographic information – data quality’ covering geographic quality principles, in particular territorial coverage and comparability, positional accuracy, as well as temporal coherence and completeness of the geographic data used for geocoding.
