7. Where do you usually live?Question 7 --Where do you usually live?
This question refers to your place of usual residence at the time of the Census. If you have lived at this address for a continuous period of at least 12 months before Census Night, or have arrived at this address in the 12 month period before Census Night with the intention of staying here for at least one year you should mark box 1 (here). If your usual residence is not here but is elsewhere in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) you should mark box 2 and write in your full address. If your usual residence is elsewhere abroad you should mark box 3 and give the country of usual residence.

The general guideline is that a person's place of usual residence is where he/she spends most of his/her daily night rest. The following specific guidelines should be used:

• Those away from home during the week who return to the family home at weekends should consider the family home as their place of usual residence.
• Primary and secondary students who are boarding away from home, and third level students at college or university, should consider the family home as their place of usual residence.
• If a person has spent or intends to spend 12 months or more in an institution then the institution is that person's place of usual residence.
• If a person regularly lives in more than one residence during the year then the place where he/she spends the majority of the year should be chosen as his/her place of usual residence.

Question 6-10. The purpose of questions 6 - 10 is to study migration patterns, both short-term and long-term. The resulting information will give us a picture of where people are moving to and from and their characteristics in terms of age, sex, education, occupation etc.

Comparing a person's place of birth (question 6) and his or her current place of usual residence (question 7) gives an indication of the extent of longer term migration.

[Examples omitted.]

Location (question 7) is a key characteristic that is used with other data to build an accurate picture of our population. It is the basis for the annual population estimates and for population projections. It is also used to determine changes to electoral boundaries.

By comparing a person's usual residence one year before the Census (question 8) and their residence at Census time (question 7), we get an indication of the extent to which people change residence. The responses also provide data on the extent of internal migration within Ireland.