Iran's Statistics Centre Starts Online Census Preparations but Has Not Yet Sent Text Invitations

Iran's Statistics Centre chief said on Saturday, 17 October 2026, that final identification of participants and list preparation for the online population and housing census began that day. Gholamreza Goudarzi said invitation text messages would be sent gradually, but none had been sent by the centre as of his interview and no census worker had yet visited homes. He said fieldwork for a statistical sample starts on 24 October 2026, and after an invitation arrives, the census page on the government's My Government portal will be used for self-reporting. The centre says official texts contain no link. The start of preparation does not mean that workers have begun visits or that all households have already received texts.