THE Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin), which is still in the throes of the 15th population and housing census it began in 2022, says economics played a part in the under-coverage of parishes such as St Andrew, St Catherine and St James by contracted census takers.

“Census takers were paid per questionnaire; I think the reality is that when you go into more affluent areas the responses tend to be lower — that is what they say — so they prefer to go to other areas because you are paid per questionnaire. So the fewer questionnaires you complete, the less payment, so they resisted in going into a number of areas,” Statin Director General Carol Coy told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

The 2022 Population and Housing Census which began in September that year envisioned the collection of data from all 14 parishes — 6,611 enumeration districts (EDs). The data collection process for the census was initially set to be completed in December 2022. However, after challenges with recruitment, a new date of March 2023 was set, but there have been further delays and the process is yet to be completed.

In the meantime, the Statin director general said the proliferation of gated complexes, which have no guards covering their entrances, was another factor accounting for the under-coverage.

“There is still that willingness [on the part of some citizens to do the census] but the gated communities [make it] hard. We knew, going into the census, that it would be difficult. If there is a security guard at the gate then we can handle that, but for a lot of them there are automatic gates so there is no security guard and when you go there is no way you can enter,” she told the Observer.

She said so far, only about 70 per cent of enumeration districts have been covered by the census.

“We have been into about 70 per cent of the enumeration districts, but it has taken a long time for us to get there; we have been in the field since September of 2022. We have decided to call a halt to the use of contract workers because we had been using contract workers for the most part, we felt that at that point it was best to withdraw them from the field,” Coy said.

She said Statin, through its permanent employees, are now conducting in-house assessments.

“We are in the process of doing what we call a post-data collection. There are areas we have not covered so what we are doing is focusing on those areas, going into those areas to check the under coverage, to see where we are so that we can move ahead with producing the estimates of the population,” she told the Observer.

In the meantime, Coy said Statin’s inability to contract the full number of persons it had hoped to attract also factored.

“I think the assumption we had made was that we would have been able to employ the numbers of persons and so we had gone out hoping to employ about 7,000 persons, both interviewers and supervisors. I don’t think we may be reached about 50 per cent. Our plan was that each person would have an enumeration district and in that four months they would have been able to go through the enumeration district. We knew that maybe we wouldn’t get as many persons as we wanted, [but] what surprised us was the level of employment, that we were not able to get as many persons as we wanted. That, I think, was a major surprise for us,” she said.

Meanwhile, Statin Deputy Director General Leesha Delatie-Budair said the mopping-up phase now underway should not last too long but shied away from giving any timelines.

“The main data collection process was quite extended, so where we are now is in the mopping-up phase. We don’t anticipate an extended data processing period, but of course this census has been so unusual that we are trying to be very conservative with all estimates and timelines because we have had so many challenges,” she said.

She said Statin has been partnering with international agencies to ensure that all of its processes are aboveboard.

“One of the things that we have been doing is, we have been in dialogue with our partners in ECLAC (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) and in the United States Statistics Division, as well as in other countries that have had similar challenges and have overcome them. So we are going lockstep with them, checking to ensure that what we are doing, the statistical integrity remains,” she said, adding “it’s been such an unusual census that none of our predictions have held”.

In March, Opposition spokesman on finance, planning and the public service Julian Robinson said of the just under three million Jamaicans, fewer than one million have been counted in the census.

“So after $4 billion, two years after the deadline, my information is that we have not counted one million people,” Robinson said, in lashing the Government and Statin for their approach to conducting the census, including the way workers’ concerns were treated.

Responding at the time Statin said it was not the practice to release figures until the exercise is completed.