Parliament yesterday ap-proved a further $3.2M for the completion of the 2002 Population and Household Census, from which preliminary data will be available by the end of the year.

"A preliminary count... by gender, region, by household and institution will be available by the end of this month," Finance Minister Saisnarine Kowlessar assured the National Assembly yesterday, before the motion for the grant of supplementary provisions was carried without objection.

Kowlessar said the additional funding would be used to pay enumerators who had conducted the enumeration exercise in 2002 but did not complete their claims until this year.

The funds will also be used to pay staff hired for the coding and editing of the enumeration data.

Population characteristics like gender, ethnicity, education, housing, religion, migration, and - in the case of women - fertility profiles, will be derived from the data collected. Based on the results of the last census in 1991 and surveys conducted during the interceding period, the Bureau projects a population increase.

Census Day was on September 2002 and the projected release of preliminary data has been delayed several times.