France, Jan. 16 -- The question, "Where were your parents born?", was added to the census last year.

It was criticised by the Human Rights League (LDH) and other organisations, which questioned why the information was needed.

The census is designed to build a picture of the French population and help shape public policy.

Listen to a history of the census in France in the Spotlight on France podcast:

The LDH said information on people with foreign-born parents was already collected through other statistical studies and did not need to be included in the census.

"The question is not about us, it's about our parents," wrote the LDH in a letter published Sunday. Use of census data

The census is run by the national statistics institute I...