The Bureau of Statistics is conducting its Pilot Census from today until May 24 and is urging the public to cooperate with its enumerators as it prepares for the 2012 Population and Housing Census.
The Population and Housing Census is one of the largest national exercises and is conducted every ten years. In a press release, Chief Statistician/Census Officer Lennox Benjamin said enumerators/census-takers visit every household across the country to administer questionnaires that collect social and economic information and data on the population. “It is an extremely important exercise and it is every citizen’s duty to cooperate according to the laws of Guyana, as the Census produces a huge body of information that is used in planning and development,” he added.
The Pilot Census is a smaller exercise which will test all the plans the Bureau has made over the past four years. It will test the methods, questionnaires, planning, training and procedures in order to inform the survey. Census-takers will visit a few selected households in all but regions seven, eight and nine to administer the questionnaires and their findings will be relayed to the census office for use in fine-tuning the actual census.
According to the Bureau, citizens’ confidentiality is protected by law; the same law which gives it the right and responsibility to take a census. No one is exempted from participating in the pilot census or the census and it is an offence under the law to refuse to cooperate. To facilitate this exercise the Bureau advises the public to secure any ferocious dogs on their premises and to inform their security personnel that an enumerator may visit them between May 18 and 24. Further, the Bureau urges the public to check the enumerator’s identification card before allowing them into their premises.
