Cape Town - Statistics SA (Stats SA) has urged the public to register online as the census goes digital next year.
As the first ever digital census, Census 2022 will use digital devices to capture data in real-time for reduced turnaround time to release results as they outline the profile of the country’s population and its living conditions.
While the country continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, Stats SA is implementing its digital census as a safety measure against Omicron.
The census is scheduled to take place February 3 to 28 next year, with less than 50 days to go before the population is counted.
The digital process will see citizens registering online to provide their data digitally and by phone.
Calvin Molongoana Census 2022 project director, said: “Census 2022 has been the most challenging population count that we have encountered in the history of our census-taking post-democracy”.
“We introduced the new methods of data collection, tested them in the midst of alternating Covid-19 alert levels to which we had to align by adjusting our methodologies from time to time.
“The journey started in 2018 and we will arrive at our destination in the coming 50 Days,” Molongoana said.
The data free platform made available by Stats SA will allow citizens to register online without the need for mobile data.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said that “conducting a census is the largest undertaking for Stats SA and we have to ensure that all communities are counted by providing platforms to participate in an environment that is safe for both our respondents and data collectors”.
“It has been challenging to arrive at this point following the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted our plans for Census 2021, leading to delaying the census to February next year,” Maluleke said.
Fieldworkers will still be operating to make sure that all data is captured.
Those who do not complete the online questionnaire and do not register will be visited by these fieldworkers along with households that register to be visited by a fieldworker.
“We will deploy over 165 000 fieldworkers to collect data for the 4th population count since the dawn of democracy, Census 2022,” said Maluleke.
Respondents should register on getcounted.statssa.gov.za or by contacting the call centre on 0800 110 248.