A sampling social and demographic survey, or population microcensus, of the Russian population was carried out in 1994, exactly five years after the last Soviet census.

Nearly 5% of the country's population became respondents, and the sampling was based on enumeration districts from the 1989 census. The microcensus took 10 days, from 14-23 February 1994.

«New Questions»

The microcensus program included demographic data as well as data on living conditions, level of education and sources of subsistence. The census form included 10 sections with a total of 49 items. New questions were added: as well as the traditional question about a person's native language, it was also asked in which languages the person could converse.

There were some new additions to the question about marital status, concerning registered and unregistered marriage, which for the first time made it possible to gauge the proportion between official and de facto marriage in Russia. Respondents were also asked about the number of children they expected to have. These data were designed to give an idea of a potential increase in the birth rate in case of an appropriate demographic policy. For the first time in the long history of Russian statistics, the "household" unit was used in the census: some 2.6 million households were surveyed.

«Main Results»

Results of the population microcensus were ready by the end of 1994. The survey gave a snapshot of the state of Russian society during the difficult years after the abandonment of the planned economy. The results confirmed that there had been a decline in the birth rate: the share of women aged 18 years or more who had given birth to only one child had risen from 27% to 30% since 1989.