The Gambia is set to hold a population and housing census in April 2023, the country’s chief statistician Nyakassi Sanyang said in a statement on Monday.
Under the slogan “Everyone Counts, Get Counted”, the exercise in mainland Africa’s smallest country will be conducted in partnership with the country’s development partners, Statistician General Sanyang said.
Usually implemented by The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) Gambia’s last population and housing census was held in April 2013, an exercise conducted every 10 years.
A national census strives to provide the most reliable details about the country’s population, age demography, spatial distribution, and the socio-economic characteristics of households, as well as housing conditions.
The legal basis for Gambian censuses is provided by the 2005 Statistics Act which empowers the Statistician General to conduct statistical surveys (Nationwide Sample Surveys) when necessary and population and housing censuses every ten years but restricts publishing particulars on individuals so that only aggregate data is made available.
GBoS usually protects personal details are protected and removed from any information used in its work or shared with other users.
According to a 2022 estimate Gambia’s population stands at 2, 413, 403 and a population density of 4, 127 people per square kilometre.
WN/as/APA