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Population and Housing Census

"Valid, reliable, timely, culturally relevant and internationally comparable data form the basis for policy and program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation."

—ICPD PoA, Para 12.1

A population and housing census is the primary source of information on the number and characteristics of the population and its housing in each locality, subnational administrative and geographical units and the whole country. It takes stock of the most important asset of countries: their human capital.

In ancient times, rulers counted their subjects for purposes of taxation and recruitment. In the mid-1950s, worldwide consensus established the key features of a census: Individual, confidential enumeration (privacy) within a defined area (universality) over a short timeframe (simultaneity) and at regular intervals (periodicity).

The unique advantage of the census is that it represents the entire statistical universe, down to the smallest geographical units. For purposes that require data at very disaggregated levels, such as municipalities, or even city neighbourhoods, the census has no match. Even if the information needed can be based on a higher level of aggregation, through sampling, this can only be done correctly if the structure of the population from which the sample has to be drawn is known in detail. This is called a 'sampling frame'.

A population census is a unique source for establishing sampling frames and calculating population projections, using the census results as a baseline. Further, insofar as international definitions and classifications are used, censuses also provide for the comparability of basic development indicators among countries, including many of those that are used to benchmark progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Finally, population and housing censuses provide population distribution by age - whichis needed for many purposes, including determine the voting age population in a given country - and by administrative units, hence providing the basis for delineating electoral districts.

Monitoring Maternal Mortality and Missing Girls

Whereas developed countries have a wealth of statistics that can be used instead of census data, developing countries typically lack well-maintained administrative registries and longitudinal data that are needed for tracking trends and differentials. This makes regular periodic censuses more important for developing country governments and potential donors.

While census data is no substitute for complete and reliable vital registration data, it can be useful in countries that lack complete and reliable civil registration and vital statistics systems, as is recognized by the United Nations in its Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2.

Census data can also corroborate or fill gaps. This can be important in the case of indicators based on a relatively small absolute number of events, such as maternal mortality.

In line with these census recommendations, a set of 2008 interagency technical notes developed by UNFPA, UNICEF, the UN Statistics Division, WHO and the Health Metric Network encourages countries to develop their civil registration and vital statistics systems. For those that lack complete and reliable systems, however, the notes recommend the inclusion of specific census questions to ascertain information about adult deaths, with a view toward measuring maternal mortality, one of the indicators for MDG 5 (Improve Maternal Health). The usefulness of this approach depends on what altenative data sources are available, how good their quality is, and also on the cost of adding another question and followup interview.

UNFPA at work

UNFPA and its partners, such as the UN Statistics Division, are strong advocates of population and housing censuses taken at least every ten years, in line with the United Nations recommendations. Toward this end, UNFPA has been mobilizing support for the 2010 round of census-taking, including the organization of an advocacy and resource mobilization meeting and regional workshops, to contribute to countries' capacities to successfully implement their 2010-round census. The regional workshops revealed that assistance is particularly needed on how to engender population and housing censuses for the purposes of gender analysis; harmonize methods, norms, operations, technologies and dissemination of census data; use of census data for public policy formulation; and monitoring the progress toward the MDGs.

Population and housing censuses are nationally owned and conducted, and UNFPA plays a lead role in advocating and mobilizing support for this undertaking. In many countries, UNFPA helps develop capacity in various technical aspects of the process, including cartography, data collection and processing, and data analysis and dissemination. The Fund also contributes to data use in planning and monitoring processes as well as in policy dialogues on all forms of development processes. Many countries would have been unable to conduct censuses without the assistance provided by the Fund. In a number of these countries, the censuses have provided the sole source of information on the population and its characteristics, without which evidence-based development planning would not have been possible.

UNFPA Support for the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Census by Region

Information on UNFPA support to countries for the successful implementation of their 2000 and 2010 rounds of censuses is provided through an interactive tracking tool.

Arab States: UNFPA is assisting governments in coordinating complex technical support arrangements to census activities for Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Iraq, including management of the trust funds for these countries. The Fund is also laying the groundwork for conducting a census in Somalia. In addition, UNFPA played a significant role in supporting various stages of censuses in other countries in the region, such as Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Oman and Saudi Arabia.


Eastern Europe and Central Asia: UNFPA is providing technical assistance to many country efforts, as in the design of questionnaires and related software issues, including GPS and data entry; training for enumerators and data processors; and analysis and dissemination of collected data for use in policy-making.

Africa: UNFPA is providing technical assistance to some 20 sub-Saharan African countries for census activities, including census mapping, data processing and in-depth data analysis. In 2008, UNFPA helped Chad and Malawi prepare effective resource mobilization strategies for their censuses, raising $18 million and $9 million, respectively. UNFPA also provided technical assistance in 2008 for the design of census projects in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Togo, and to support the implementation of census projects in Burundi, Chad, Djibouti, Liberia and Madagascar.

Asia and the Pacific: UNFPA is supporting population and housing census-related activities in, among other countries, Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. UNFPA also organized an advocacy and resource mobilization workshop for this region in July 2006 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Latin America and the Caribbean: Most countries in the region will hold their census between 2010 and 2013. UNFPA organized an advocacy and resource mobilization workshop for this region in September 2007 in Panama City, Panama.

Assisting countries in special circumstances

UNFPA has taken a prominent role in supporting several countries undertaking their first census in post-conflict situations or those that required technical assistance or support for other reasons. In all of these countries, UNFPA funded a Resident Chief Technical Adviser to ensure the success of the census operations.

In Afghanistan, UNFPA has taken the lead in helping to organize the country's first complete population and housing census.

In Angola, UNFPA is assisting the government to complete its first census since 1973.

In Haiti, the first census in 24 years employed a total of 25,000 people and cost about $8 million. Funding was provided by the Haitian Government, UNFPA and others.

In Nigeria, UNFPA provided technical expertise to the Government of Africa's most populous country for the first headcount in 15 years.

In Cambodia, UNFPA played a crucial role in supporting the country's 1998 Census and 2004 Inter-Censal Population Survey. UNFPA also provided technical and financial support to all stages of Cambodia's 2010 census round, conducted in March 2008. UNFPA support to the 2008 census also included coordinating and managing contributions received from various partners, including JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), the Government of Japan and the Government of Germany.

In Timor-Leste, the first official national population enumeration was conducted with UNFPA support. The lack of an address system was overcome by satellite imaging, aerial photography and global positioning system coding. In July 2004, nearly 4,000 census-takers visited households to obtain demographic, social and economic data for use in planning by this new Government.

In Liberia, UNFPA played a major role in assisting the Government in successfully conducting a population and housing census in March 2008. This provided data after a gap of more than 24 years. Data of the country's last census taken in 1984 were lost in the civil war before they were fully captured and analyzed. UNFPA contributed to all phases of the census and will continue to provide technical support for the remaining phases, including data analysis and dissemination.

In Banda Aceh, where a tsunami left a half million persons homeless, UNFPA in 2005 supported a provincial census that gave planners a better understanding of the impact of the tsunami-including the different ways women and men were affected-and the needs for expanded social services.

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