Article 3 — Population base

1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the population base consists of all persons having their usual residence within the Union in a specified territorial unit of a Member State, at national level, regional level, local level or grid level, at the reference date. 2. The population base shall include all usually resident persons, regardless of their citizenship and regardless of whether they are or were stateless. 3. The population base shall exclude persons whose usual residence is outside the territory of the Member State concerned, regardless of place of birth or citizenship, and regardless of any family, social, economic or property links that the person has with that Member State. 4. Where a person has no usual residence, that person’s location on the reference date shall be deemed to be that person’s usual residence. 5. Member States shall apply the definition of usual residence provided for in this Regulation to all data sets provided to the Commission (Eurostat) under this Regulation and at the national level, the regional level, the local level and the grid level, as set out in the Annex. 6. When applying the definition of usual residence, Member States shall use: (a) one or more of the data sources listed in Article 8(1); (b) estimation methods, subject to Article 11(2), to ensure the accurate implementation of the population base in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 4 of this Article, such as signs of life, as well as other scientifically based, well-documented and publicly available statistical estimation methods, taking into account international recommendations and best practices, to correct for actual presence at the presumed place of usual residence for most of the time in the 12 months ending with the reference date, and to estimate the number of persons who intend or are expected to stay for most of the time in the 12 months from the date of arrival. 7. For the purpose of qualified majority voting in the Council, the Commission shall provide to the Council data on the total population of Member States at the end of each reference year, as published by the Commission (Eurostat) by 30 September of the calendar year following the reference year. The Commission shall provide those data on the basis of information transmitted by Member States in the data set specified in the Annex and on the basis of any revised data sets transmitted by Member States pursuant to Article 7(3), first subparagraph, point (a), and in accordance with Article 7(3), second and third subparagraphs, where such data sets are transmitted by Member States before 1 September of the calendar year following the reference year.