The 1989 census was the last in the history of the Soviet Union. Altogether, it remained true to the traditions and achievements of previous censuses. As in 1979, the census forms were printed in a machine-readable format.

The 1989 questions about living conditions had already been asked in the 1985 microcensus, but were now put to 100% of the country residents, and not 5% as in 1989.

«The Last Census of the USSR»

The family was again selected as the main unit for observation. As of the census date on 12 January, 255.8 million people or 88% of the USSR's population were living in families. It was also found that 13 million (5%) family members lived separately from their families, but were connected by a shared budget.

Preliminary results of the census were already published in April 1989, just three months after the poll was completed. Final results of the count and age composition of the population, marital status, number and size of families, level of education, nationality and languages, and sources of subsistence were obtained in early 1990, after automatic processing of the census forms.