The Republican Statistics Office (RSO) said that the census was important for ordinary citizens, since it could mean that their problems with education, infrastructure and healthcare would be identified, as well as solved. The census will be held in the period from October 1 to 15, 2011.

Milan Markovic, Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja says   that the Albanians’ boycott of the census was politically motivated and that it could cause damage to that ethnic minority.

“There is a way of figuring out how many Albanians there are. However, the census doesn’t only include working out the number of the population, but also the way of finding out the problems that a specific group of the population is faced with and the way of solving them,” Minister Markovic said.   
According to him, Serbia will continue solving problems of the Albanians, while the aforementioned boycott will only aggravate such efforts.

Snezana Lakcevic, Head of the Census Department within the RSO, said that “all the citizens, including the Albanians, should understand that the census is conducted for their own good. The census is a sort of a “blood test” of a country. It is the only source of valid data on the population, their households and apartments, as well as on their characteristics. The information that we are going to obtain is necessary, so that the country could determine its educational policy and infrastructural development, as well as cut down the unemployment.  For instance, we are going to find out the spots where there are a lot of children and elderly people, so that we could build schools and health centers there”, Ms. Lakcevic said.  The data obtained in the census is important, because, as she said, Europe “talks in figures”.