Population count likely by February
Increase on 1991 expected
By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
November 27, 2002
A preliminary quick count of the population based on Census 2002 should be released by late February and is expected to show an increase over the last twelve years.
Chief Statistician of the National Bureau of Statistics, Lennox Benjamin, told Stabroek News that a preliminary count, which would be a broad aggregation by gender and region, would be released first and he anticipated that the figures would show an increase in the country’s population.
While considering migration as a factor, Benjamin said the Bureau still anticipates an increased population, observing that since the last national census in 1991, there has been an inflow of persons from other countries into Guyana, which he said may offset migration.
He also considered the possibility of a natural increase, observing that while over time women have been giving birth less, they have nonetheless still been productive.
Benjamin explained that in so massive an exercise as the census, the objective is to have a profile of the population and to disseminate the information as quickly as possible. He however noted that the information needs to be checked for consistency, not only in the numbers, but also in the basic profiles of the households which would include gender, education, age, economic activity profile, all of which would be tabulated.
The Bureau is now engaged in ensuring that all questionnaires have been submitted and are accounted for and checking these for accuracy and completeness.
This “mopping-up” exercise is expected to be complete within the next two weeks at which time a final public announcement would be made to bring the Census 2002 to a close. This excludes Region Nine (Upper Takutu\Upper Essequibo), where the exercise was completed in March to avoid the annual rainy season there. Region One (Barima\Waini) and the hinterland area of Region Seven (Cuyuni/ Mazaruni) have been left for last in light of the logistics of the terrain and the economics of training enumerators. Enumeration of these areas is expected to begin next Monday using teams from Georgetown.
The first set of information from the census is expected to be available by the end of next February while more detailed information about the population is expected in June.
He emphasised that this would not be government information but for every interested citizen and that the information would be disseminated at a community-based level, possibly before release at a national level.
“We would want to go into communities and say well this is what your area looks like. We know so little about community population, age groups and skills. We don’t know about the skills available in some communities and we find we are going to other communities to procure skills.”
