Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh on Wednesday, August 10, 2022 signed the Census Order, which was published today in the Official Gazette declaring September 15, 2022 as Census Day in Guyana.
The Ministry of Finance said in a release that the signing of this order followed the approval on Monday, August 8 by the National Assembly of supplemental funding of $2 billion to aid in the execution of the Census.
The declaration of Census Day allows the Bureau of Statistics, an agency of the Ministry of Finance, to count the population at a specified point in time and marks the beginning of a three-month long enumeration period for the 2022 National Population and Housing Census.
A Population & Housing Census is a complete count of the population, which is conducted every 10 years and provides detailed data on population size, age structure, educational attainment, labour force and many other socio-economic characteristics.
Guyana’s last Census was conducted in 2012. The release said that it should be noted that Census data is collected, analyzed, and made available in an aggregated format, while ensuring that individual information is treated with the strictest of confidence. Provisions under Chapter 19:09 of the Statistics Act ensure that the data is only used for analytical purposes and that any individual data is protected and never made public.
Among some of the preparatory works being undertaken by the Bureau of Statistics are the establishment of temporary regional offices, finalization of data collection tools, training of approximately 3000 temporary personnel and the rolling out of a public education and awareness campaign, the release said.
All persons in Guyana are being encouraged to fully participate in the 2022 Census. The Official launch of Census Day will be Monday, August 22, 2022.
Some of the persons trained for the census (Statistics Bureau photo)