Housing and population survey of 15th national census to be completed next month

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The Department of Census and Statistics plans to complete the listing phase of the 15th housing and population census by December 2023, Director of the Department Dr. Chandani Wijebandara said.

She said that a census was conducted in four stages. The first stage is the census mapping which subdivides the country into small Standard Enumeration Areas.

“Then comes the listing of the buildings at the Census block level based on the maps. Third is the enumeration stage. This consists of two rounds. First round is the data collection stage and the second round the revision of data collected during the first round taking into account any births, deaths or changes of residence between the first round and the census day. Fourth stage is the publication of the findings,” she said.

Dr. Wijebandara said that they now need to train enumerators and that phase can start in the second quarter of 2024. In the third quarter they will announce the ‘census moment’. “All information gathered during the census refers to the situation at that particular point in time,” she said.

Dr. Wijebandara said they assure the anonymity of all personal data. These data can’t be used for police investigations or inquiries, she said. “We are bound by law to protect the data we collect. People also are bound by law to give accurate data for enumerators,” she said.

If everyone in the household is at work during the data collection period, steps have been taken to leave a letter with the phone number of the enumerator, she said. “Please call that number and inform him or her about the time you are at home. We have also introduced a hotline 1901, so you can call and get further information,” she said.

Meanwhile, Additional Director General of the Department Anoja Seneviratne said this time officials will collect data using tablet computers. In previous census data was collected using printed paper. “There were many issues with that, therefore we shifted to tablet computers,” she said.

Director General of the Department of Census and Statistics, P.M.P. Anura Kumara said that it takes about four years to complete a population census and using pen and paper to collect data is a colossal expense.

“We also spend a lot of time on entering data into computers and cleaning data. However, since we are using tablet computers this time, a lot of time and money can be saved,” he said.

Kumara said that there are about 1,500 people working in his department. Out of which 750are technical officials. However, 22,500 people are needed for a population census.

“We get the rest from other government agencies, mainly for enumeration. These officials receive training from us and United Nations Population Fund and Food and Agriculture Organization’s Sri Lanka office helps us a lot. A number of other government institutions also support us because the data we collect are important for all,” he said.