The preliminary results of the 2012 population and housing census were never intended to offer ethnic breakdowns, Chief Statistician and Census Officer Lennox Benjamin said on Monday.
Benjamin told members of the media that the parameters by which the preliminary information was disseminated were clear. Benjamin said it was just a “snapshot” of the information that would be released comprehensively in 2015.
The Chief Statistician downplayed criticism that the release of statistics on the ethnic composition in Guyana was being stalled. He said the initial priority was to ensure that the population count was accurate.
Benjamin spoke to members of the media after the Annual Meeting of the Standing Com-mittee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and the Regional Census Coordinating Committee (RCCC), held at the Princess International Hotel, at Provi-dence, East Bank Demerara.
He did not disclose when in 2015 the census information would be available but said ensuring accuracy was time consuming.
Benjamin said there was a heavy burden and obligation to ensure that all statistics that comprise the census were complete and error proof. He referred to the age pyramid as being far more important than ethnic composition, while noting that the National Insurance Scheme was heavily dependent on having a working population to sustain it. Studying how many persons were entering the work force, compared with those retiring were numbers that needed to be highlighted, he added.
Other missing components from the preliminary results were numbers on unemployment, underemployment and education. Benjamin, however, said Guyana was on par with regional counterparts in disseminating information and the length of time the census took to prepare.
When it released its preliminary results in July, the Bureau of Statistics made it known that Guyana’s population had dropped to 747,884 in 2012, and Benjamin said the reduction was mainly influenced by migration.
Although the figure represented a decline of 3,339 from the 751,223 that was recorded in 2002, when the previous census was conducted, the results also showed a significant drop in the number of persons living in Region Six, which now stands at 109,431, down from 123,695, representing a decline of 14,264. This region, with an ethnic makeup that is heavily East Indian, is the bedrock of the ruling PPP’s constituency.
Meanwhile, also speaking after the SCCS meeting was Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, who highlighted the importance of utilising statistics for development. He stated that education had to be tied to assessing the needs of a country. The minister noted that the rigidity on the labour market meant that vocational and tertiary education could be tied with the developmental needs of a country to ensure that graduates are employed and not underemployed or unemployed.
