A dozen municipalities across Macedonia will conduct a trial census, in preparation of the controversial 2020 census.

Citizens will be asked to fill in a number of questionnaires about their households, living and economic conditions, social and ethnic background.

The trial will cover some of Skopje’s urban districts such as Kisela Voda, cities like Gostivar, Kumanovo, Stip and Prilep, as well as several rural municipalities such as Zelenikovo and Dolneni.
The census is being postponed since 2011, when it was interrupted after parties representing ethnic Albanians insisted that the Statistics Bureau allows counting of long time emigrants from Macedonia along with the residents.

The 2020 census will count emigrants, which is a reason why the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party is objecting to the proposed law and raised the possibility of boycott.