Pretoria - Stats SA has announced that preparations are well on track for census night come Wednesday this week.
Stats SA will be conducting a nationwide housing census from Wednesday February 2 up to the 28, with close to 165 000 fieldworkers expected to be deployed across the country to count everyone within the borders of South Africa.
This year's census, unlike previous enumerations, will involve three methods, mainly telephonic, digital computer-assisted counting, and physical door-to-door assessments.
The population count was initially set to take place in 2021, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was postponed to this year.
Despite this delay, the national statistical service said they had in preparation for the main census conducted the necessary testing since 2018, which was characteristic of the processes that preceded a population count.
On top of that, Stats SA said it had also recently concluded the Pilot Census, which would ensure that the multi-modal approach to data collection could be implemented efficiently and that the necessary plans were put in place.
In fact, StatsSA said the delay in initiating the census in 2021 due to Covid-19 would also not have a significant impact on the country, as the change of dates had only resulted in the delay of about four months.
According to Stats SA, the census in South Africa was conducted once in 10 years to enable the provision of data to inform planning and decision-making at all geographic levels.
While it conducted surveys such as the Quarterly Labour Force Survey and the General Household Surveys on a more regular basis to provide information in the intercensal periods, these surveys, however, could only provide information at national, provincial and metro level.
Meanwhile, thanks to the technological advancements that have enabled the country to conduct the first-ever digital count, the census results would be available earlier than with the previous countings.
The organisation added that another consideration that would possibly have an impact on the comparability of the results was that unlike previous censuses, the 2022 Census would be conducted in February wherein they were usually conducted in October.
Pretoria News