Fieldwork for national census to begin this year

Funds have been allocated in Budget 2022 for the fieldwork associated with a national census this year – in keeping with the practice of conducting this exercise every decade.
During the Consideration of Budget Estimates on Thursday, Senior Minister with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh told the National Assembly that preparatory works have already commenced through the Bureau of Statistics.
Opposition Member of Parliament, Juretha Fernandes had identified that the recurrent revenue for the Bureau of Statistics for 2021 was $604 million and with $1 billion budgeted for the agency this year, she questioned if those resources were adequate.
“I don’t see how we’re catering for this huge census across the country with that small increase to that agency,” she outlined.
However, Singh clarified, “Notwithstanding that a census is associated with a particular year, quite a lot of the preparatory work starts long before the census year, and so the Bureau of Statistics would have already started preparatory works, including developing some of their draft data collection tools, initiating preparation of their questionnaires, field manuals, field testing, setting up IT systems that are required for the purposes of collecting, collating, consolidating and ultimately analysing the data that would be collected”.
In 2021, some of the funds allotted for the Bureau was used to start preparation, given the “vastness of an endeavour” that a census is. Singh added that work will continue beyond 2022 with additional resources in the 2023 budget to draw the curtains down on the process.
“It’s a once in a decade activity…Recall from the previous censuses that the census activity doesn’t get completed in the year which the census is executed. In fact, work will continue beyond 2022. One will see in the budget for 2023, work continuing on the analysis of the data, preparation of census reports, etc. A census, while associated with a particular year, is a multi-year activity,” the Finance Minister told the House.
This year, he assured that there will be an “escalation” of activities because this will be the year in which fieldwork will be executed.
A census is the procedure of systematically calculating, acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. When the fieldwork commences, persons will be required to visit every region of Guyana, allow Guyanese to complete questionnaires with information, that will then be compiled to form an updated version of the country’s national population count and data. The last census was conducted in 2012. (G12)