Enumerators are to begin collecting census forms from around the country today, following census night yesterday.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is asking people to keep their completed forms safe, and answer the door to their enumerator when they call back.

Once collected, the forms will be returned to Census HQ in Swords, Co Dublin - where they will be stored before being scanned over the next six months.

Once all of the data has been captured and checked, it will be analysed and published early next year in the form of census reports.

Preliminary results of Census 2016 will be issued in July, and the definitive results will be available within a year.

The information gathered through the 2016 Census will be used to inform policy makers and will play a crucial role in decision-making on - for example - where to build more houses, new schools, or locate new businesses.

Enumerators will continue to collect forms until May 23rd. The CSO is asking householders to keep their census form ready for collection

Deirdre Cullen is senior statistician at the CSO.

"We would like to say a big thank you to all of our enumerators for the fantastic work they've done to date", she said.

"It's a tough job and we are asking people to be as helpful as possible to the enumerators when they return to collect your form by having them ready to go".

For any queries, the Census helpline is available on 1850-2016-04