The director of the State Statistical Office Apostol Simovski said in an interview with TV Sitel that the census provides an opportunity to count all citizens of Macedonia, regardless of whether they reside or not in the country.

According to him, foreign citizens residing in Macedonia will also be counted, except for the diplomatic corps and persons who do not have documents.

According to United Nations definitions, there are three categories of population. The first, the main one that is very important is the so-called total or resident population, Simovski said, adding that this category includes Macedonian citizens who reside in the country, citizens living abroad no longer than a year and foreign citizens living in the country for more than a year.

The second category, total non-resident population, consists of Macedonian citizens living abroad for more than a year and foreign citizens living in the country for less than a year.

According to Simovski, the check will be done with all available data bases.

He said that all those who will give false information during the census will be held accountable.