APA-Banjul (The Gambia) The chief statistician at The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) says the next population and housing census has been set for between May 25th and June 14th 2024, according to a statement seen by APA on Tuesday.
Gambia’s last population census was held eleven years ago and was due last year but was rescheduled for 2024 thanks to logistical challenges at the time.
According to a 2023 estimate, the population of mainland Africa’s smalles nation has topped 2 million.
Under the purview of finance and economic affairs ministry, GBoS is tasked with conducting the national census and analyses and disseminates the statistical data about the country’s demographics.
A statement seen by APA on Tuesday indicated that next month’s census would be held with funding from Gambia’s traditional donors namely the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The exercise is supposed to provide information on population demographics, social and economic characteristics and household and housing characteristics.
”This information helps central and local governments to plan for various social services such as education, health, housing, sanitation, and others. The information that will be derived from the census will also help the private sector, including businesses to plan their activities, which will be of benefit to the economic development of this country” said the statement from chief statistician Nyakassi Sanyang.
GBoS has already conducted a pilot census at selected districts of Gambia’s five regions from 5th to 24th March this years with a view to determining ”the overall efficiency of the overall census materials such as the methodology, questionnaires, data collection methods, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions related to fieldwork, daily data transfers to the data repository/server, efficiency of connectivity and synchronization and various aspects regarding the organization of the enumeration process”.
Sanynag said this test run will place GBoS in good stead to unpack ”the potential challenges and obstacles in successfully conducting the census, thus ensuring high-quality collected information”.
Aside from regular country residents, those to be covered by next month’s exercise will include all persons spending census night in a Gambian household, institutions, outdoor sleepers, and travellers on transit in The Gambia.
WN/as/APA