Skopje, 31 March 2022 (MIA) – The Census was conducted according to a European methodology and the relevance of data cannot be questioned because of one’s discontent from the numbers, State Statistical Office (SSO) director Apostol Simovski told MIA on Thursday. “It is our task to present the real situation and we have done this, without thinking whether someone’s expectations will be fulfilled or not,” said Simovski. According to him, comments on the drop in the representation of certain ethnic communities in the Census or rejection of its results are completely unacceptable because a drop is seen in all groups. “The Census has shown that the population size has shrunk and SSO’s task is to provide the real situation. When compared to the last census, there are 185,834 less citizens, coming from all ethnic communities,” said Simovski. VMRO-DPMNE said earlier today that the Census is incomplete and does not provide a complete picture about the population, whereas the Alliance of Albanians believes the results cannot be seen as credible “when the ethnicity of about 8.5 percent of the total population is unknown”. Demokratski Sojuz (DS) has said the Census results do not reflect the reality, Levica rejected them by saying that 300,000 citizens have not been counted, while the Socialist Party claimed the Census was incomplete and manipulative, damaging the national interests. The census coordination body of the Turkish people in the country said the number of ethnic Turks in the country was much larger than the one presented, noting it did not recognize the results, while the Bosniak Democratic Alliance also questioned the numbers related to the Bosniak community.