Intercensal estimate

In demographics, an intercensal estimate is an estimate of population between official census dates with both of the census counts being known. Some nations produce regular intercensal estimates while others do not. Intercensal estimates can be less or more informative than official census figures, depending on methodology, completeness, accuracy (as they can have significant undercounts or overestimates) and date of data, and can be released by nations, subnational entities, or other organizations including those not affiliated with governments. They differ from population projections as they are from past dates, although intercensal estimates can be used to form population projections.

Intercensal estimates are one of the two types of population estimates, the other being postcensal estimates. Intercensal estimates are considered to be more accurate than postcensal estimates, because they approximated between two dates with the exact figure (accounting for errors) being known and being considered factual. Additionally, postcensal estimates can be based on the prior census. (e.g. a 2011 postcensal estimate can be based on a 2001 census, due to time and complexity of producing estimates from 2011 census data.).

All counts are estimates, including censuses (in reality every survey has a margin of error, even most census counts are corrected for data omission, duplication, cheating, miscounts) but some counts include random sampling (door to door and/or by calling