The municipal citizen survey (KBU) is taking place for the 13th time since 1993. The body responsible for preparation, technical implementation and evaluation of the survey is the Municipal Statistics Office of the City of Dresden, in close collaboration with the offices of the city administration. The goal is to gain a representative picture of the living conditions of the population and trace development in the spheres of housing, the environment, transport, safety, voluntary services and care. The collated survey results are an important reason for decisions taken by both the city council and administration. To ensure the statistical representativeness and reliability of the survey results, it is important that as many as possible of the citizens of Dresden contacted take part.
Have you received a questionnaire? You can take part online:
Please take a look on your letter or on the questionnaire to find out which of the three questionnaires you received (A, B or C). Click below on the corresponding link to the online questionnaire. Now enter your access code, which can be found on your letter.
You can get to your online questionnaire here:
Here you get support for filling out
Frequently asked questions and their answers
Can a person other than the one contacted fill out the questionnaire and send it back?
The questionnaire is only intended for the person addressed in the Oberbürgermeister’s letter. This is important so that the answers cover a statistically representative section of the population. Of course, the person addressed may have help. The answers, however, must always relate to the addressed person’s conditions or household.
If the addressee is out of reach for several weeks (e.g. abroad for an extended period), it is worthwhile contacting the statistics office by telephone or email, giving the access code (see letter) to inform of non-participation, so that no reminder letter gets sent.
You can reach us using the contact information given above.
Do I have to take part in the survey?
Participation in the survey is voluntary. But your responses are important: Only if as many of the addressed people take part in the survey as possible can valid, meaningful results be gained, giving important information for the city administration’s expert planning.
Why does my access code to the online questionnaire not work?
Three thematically different questionnaires have been sent out. Please take a look on your letter or on the questionnaire to find out which of the three questionnaires you received (A, B or C). Check that you have selected the right link to the questionnaire. If you still cannot gain access, please get in touch via the contact data above.
What can I do if I need new survey documents (questionnaire, information sheet or return envelope)?
In this case we will be very happy to send you a new questionnaire, a new information sheet or return envelope. Please get in touch using the contact data given above, giving the access code (see letter) or your address. Of course, you can also send back the questionnaire in a self-addressed, stamped envelope, to: Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Kommunale Statistikstelle, Postfach 12 00 20, 01001 Dresden.
It is also possible to hand in the completed questionnaire at the Rathaus, the municipal statistics office, a citizens’ office (Bürgerbüro) or another municipal Organisation.
I am having difficulty filling out the questionnaire. Who can help me with this?
If you have trouble filling out the questionnaire because of visual impairment, language difficulties or another reason, please get in touch using the details given above.
The employees of the municipal statistics office will be happy to help you further and find a hassle-free solution. Unfortunately, municipal employees are not able to visit respondents at home. Otherwise, you can also turn to the following advice bureaus, initiatives and associations, who have committed to support you in filling out the questionnaire: click here.
Why are there three different questionnaires, A, B and C?
The municipal citizen survey covers many different topics. So that answering the questionnaire does not take too much time, each questionnaire has different key focuses. This year’s citizen survey asks the people of Dresden questions about the topics of personal living conditions, their opinion of the city, housing, the environment, transport, safety, voluntary services and care.
Why have I or a member of my household also received, potentially at the same time, the survey documents for the Mietspiegel (rental index) 2021?
For decades now, landlords and tenants in the city of Dresden have been able to use the valued instrument of a rental index. This is re-calculated or updated by legal requirement at intervals of two years. Each time this happens, rents in Dresden must be recorded in a survey. In the past, interviewers would come to visit tenants. From mid-March 2020, the rental index will now be drawn up as a written survey of randomly selected citizens of Dresden, with online participation also planned. Implementing this is the obligation of the InWIS Institute, on behalf of the city of Dresden. It cannot be ruled out that members of one household will receive documents for both surveys. This is because of the random selection process and cannot be avoided. These are two different surveys with very different underlying intents and contents, whose data are processed in different offices, and which are totally unconnected in nearly all other ways. All the surveys have in common is that participation is voluntary. However, the participation of as many people as possible is essential to the success of the surveys; for which reason we would like to warmly invite you to take part in both, as the case may be.
If I participate, is data protection assured?
The implementation of the survey takes place with the approval of the City of Dresden’s data protection officer. The statistical privacy of your information is fully assured in accordance with the provisions of the Sächsisches Datenschutzgesetz (Saxon data protection law), the Sächsisches Statistikgesetz (Saxon statistics law) and KBU statute. The content of the survey and the name and address of the respondent are always kept in separate files and never connected together. The questionnaires are exclusively processed in the sealed areas of the municipal statistics office by staff sworn to secrecy and obliged to protect data. Transferral of the individual data to other offices of the city administration is not permitted. The evaluation of the data collected takes place anonymously and does not allow individuals to be identified. No individual results, but only grouped data are published.
What are the barcode and strings of letters and numbers on the questionnaire for; how can anonymity be assured?
The barcode can be read by a scanner and contains the adjacent string of letters and numbers. This allows the automated recording of the questionnaire. In addition, the string of letters and numbers is used as per the statute on the execution of municipal citizen surveys to assign living conditions (good/average/basic), location on a flood plain (yes/no) and the district in question. (see How can localised evaluation take place?)
Directly after the questionnaire is sent in, the barcode is scanned and the corresponding name and address immediately deleted; all other names and addresses are deleted once the reminder letter is sent. The recording of content of the questionnaire thus only takes place once names and addresses have already been deleted. (see If I participate, is data protection assured?)
Why does the city ask about my personal health, alcohol consumption and well-being and the factors that influence them?
The city has been a member since 1991 of the European WHO network “Healthy Cities”. Membership of this is intended to make a contribution to the health situation of Dresden's citizens. The WHO project relies on current, regularly collected data on the health of citizens. Above all in the field of health-related behaviour (e.g. diet, physical activity, consumption of alcohol and nicotine, use of health services) the necessary data are only obtainable through special collection – in this case, within the framework of the municipal citizen survey. In questionnaire B, the topic of “health” is a key focus for 2020.
Why are personal questions (e.g. gender or year of birth) required?
These serve as classification questions, i.e. evaluation may take place separately for men and women or for different age groups. This lets us determine whether particular demographic groups live in differing circumstances and whether their views and expectations vary.
What does the city use the results of the survey for?
The municipal citizen survey 2020 is taking place for the 13th time since 1993. Its goal is to create a statistical record of the actual living conditions of the people of Dresden and discover their opinions and desires. The survey results are useful both to the city council and administration as an important basis for future decisions. They are used, among other things, to update urban development and transport concepts and design and support cultural and sporting life. Not least, the data can be used to derive the upper limits of costs taken on to provide supported accommodation for those in need.
How can localised evaluation take place?
Dresden’s districts are varied in their urban structure, social composition and many other characteristics. Knowledge of these particular characteristics is already important when drawing conclusions and making decisions about the further development of our city.
From the addresses of the random sample, as per the KBU statute, an auxiliary file is drawn up with spatial assignments to residential areas, districts and flood plains. The string of numbers and letters allows subsequent assignment of the answers to the given spatial units. In each spatial unit there are at least several hundred inhabitants, meaning individual persons cannot be singled out. The borders of the spatial units can be seen e.g. on the topical city map.
When and where are the results of the citizen survey published?
Evaluation of the survey is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. At that point, the public will be informed of the most important results in a press conference.
In addition, two brochures will be created: the “main statements” brochure will give information comparing the results with other surveys in text and graphics, draw out trends and make suggestions on how the data may be classified relative to other results. In the “table part” brochure, the results of all the questions in the three questionnaires will be statistically evaluated in table form.
These publications are available for download free of charge on the city of Dresden’s website, but can also be obtained in paper form from the municipal statistics office for a nominal fee. In addition, the data collected by the KBU over many years at the level of “urban areas” (collected districts) are available online in the KBU atlas.
