EstUMS Project

Migrants who are absent from official registers, including those with irregular status, are difficult to count. Yet reliable estimates of their numbers and demographic characteristics are needed to complement official population statistics.
Building on the MISAFIR and MIrreM projects, EstUMS examines four estimation methods through national case studies: mortality-based estimation, digital traces such as social media data, data linkage and indirect extrapolation. The mortality-based approach, previously applied in Belgium, combines recorded deaths among uncounted populations with estimated death rates to calculate population size and demographic composition.
Funded by Eurostat, EstUMS aims to refine, validate and adapt these methods, ensuring their robustness, scalability and harmonisation across the European Statistical System.