Census project in Peru

A forms processing system has been chosen to count and compile information about 30 million people who live in Peru. The survey, for which the United Nations took charge of procurement, is being conducted by the Statistics Department of Peru, INEI. After considering various options, the UN selected Documents for Forms from ReadSoft.

A number of censuses worldwide have been handled by scanning technology in recent years. In 2005, the UN evaluated three different data capture applications that could handle the documents generated from the National Census for Population and Housing in Peru, eventually choosing the ReadSoft solution.

The Statistics Department of Peru collected data on the country's 30 million inhabitants. After 7.5 million questionnaires had been assembled, the new system read and compiled the data in only 50 days, rather than the 100 days originally estimated by INEI. The solution has significantly shortened the delivery time of preliminary data compared to a 1993 census project, which took 14 months, ReadSoft reports in a recent news release. The software allowed census authorities to evaluate the results accurately in six months, enabling the final results to be available to the public earlier than in the past.

The forms processing software reads handwritten text, machine print, barcodes, check boxes, circles and tables.