SEJONG -- South Korea will launch a national census this month, with census workers taking extra precautions amid the coronavirus pandemic, Statistics Korea said Sunday.

The nation conducts a population census every five years, and this year's survey includes 27,000 census workers who will carry out door-to-door interviews with residents.

To reduce door-to-door visits, people will be encouraged to use mobile phones, fixed-line telephones and personal computers to register their personal, family and other information.

The "contactless" census will be conducted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31, a Statistics Korea official said.

For those who fail to respond to the Oct. 15-31 survey, census workers will visit their homes from Nov. 1 to Nov. 18.

The official said Statistics Korea has drawn up precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

For the first time, this year's census will not use papers during door-to-door interviews, and census workers will use tablet computers, according to the official.

South Korea's total population inched up last year, but elderly people continued to outnumber children due to a rapid aging trend and a record low birth rate, according to an annual survey of Statistics Korea.

A total of 51.78 million people lived in South Korea as of Nov. 1, 2019, up 0.3 percent, or 150,000, from a year earlier.

Statistics Korea started to hold an annual population survey based on national resident registration records in 2016, with the conventional person-to-person survey to be conducted every five years. (Yonhap)