The second All-Russian census officially kicked off on Thursday in the country's Far Eastern regions of Primorye and Kamchatka, local government sources said.
The census, the second since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, will take place on October 14-25. Its cost is estimated at some 17 billion rubles.
"Almost 1,500 census takers began their work in the region," a source in Kamchatka government said, adding that the region would spend 5.5 million rubles (over $183,000) for preparing the census.
In some remote areas of North Caucasus's Dagestan, South Siberia's Altai and Far East the census began two weeks before the official start, and took place between September 30 and October 14. More than 350,000 people were surveyed.
A source for the Primorye government said police held special preparations to make sure that homeless people and migrant workers are also be surveyed.
Some 616,000 census takers are to be employed all across Russia, with an average monthly wage of some 5,500 rubles ($183). All of them are insured against dog bites, fractures and other injuries and will receive up to 20,000 rubles ($667) in compensation if injured during their work.
During the previous census in 2002 some 500 incidents involving census takers were registered, with almost 70% of them being dog attacks.
VLADIVOSTOK / PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, October 14 (RIA Novosti)
