THE Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) will be commencing Jamaica’s 15th National Population and Housing Census in September.

Director general at Statin, Carol Coy made the disclosure while addressing Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation in Black River.

She stated that the national census is carried out every 10 years and should have been executed in 2021, but got pushed back by a year due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Census Day is actually September 12, and this is the reference point for the census. So, we start collecting data on September 13 and who we will [count] is everybody belonging to his or her place of usual residence,” said Coy.

“We will be counting people in their homes, correctional institutions, children’s homes, infirmaries, boarding schools, universities, hotels, military camps, hospitals providing specialised care. We will also be counting persons actually living on the streets, living on the quays and so on,” she added.

Coy indicated that each individual in the household will get a questionnaire to detail age, sex, ethnic origin, marital status, education, physical and mental limitations, training, economic background, fertility, and transportation, among other requirements.

Additionally, information to be collected will include types of houses people are living in, the material of the outer wall, roofing, number of rooms, the tenure of land, rent, waste disposal and the source of water for domestic use, as well as the availability and type of kitchen, bathroom, and toilet facilities.

“For the first time in history we will be using, rather than paper, tablet computers to capture the information that we will require. What this allows is to monitor the quality of the work we are getting… and it makes the survey more efficient,” Coy said.

“We will enable GPS so we can monitor what the persons [collectors] are doing. And once the data is collected it is uploaded immediately to our server — so that helps in the security,” she added.

Coy assured that people’s personal information will be kept confidential under the Official Secrets Act.

“[However], the census data is used for policymaking, research, business and industry. It helps to assess the quality of housing in your parish [and] …education level. Census data is important for the development of your community, parish and country — and we want every living person in Jamaica to be counted,” she explained.

— JIS