The Portugal 2011 Census of Population and Housing is using the Internet as a possible form of response for the first time. Almost 50% of all Portuguese households have an internet connection (Statistics Portugal, 2009) which suggests that the e-census can be expected to perform well, at least among groups having good levels of internet coverage.
The Pilot Survey is the final preparatory phase of the 2011 Census and it is a complete rehearsal for the real operation aimed at evaluating the adequacy of the entire census plan and organization. This paper presents operational results of the e-census obtained from the Pilot Survey, namely response rates, demographics of respondents and data quality.