Malawi preliminary census results out by December 2018 – NSO
The Zomba-based National Statistical Office (NSO) will release the 2018 Population and Housing Census (PHC) preliminary report by December three months after data collection while the final report would be ready by April, 2019, Commissioner for Statistics, Mercy Kanyuka has said.
Kanyuka made the disclosure at Chilema Ecumenical Training Centre in Zomba, on Monday at the close of two weeks training of 80 district supervisors in readiness for the PHC which is expected to be conducted from September 3rd to September 23rd.
The PHC results will inform government and development partners on Malawi’s population and demographic, economic and social data and information that will help in development planning and policy formulation.
Kanyuka said the 2018 door to door exercise would capture data using 25,000 tablets instead of the traditional paper based questionnaire information recording system.
“By April 2019, the NSO will release the final report of the 2018 Population and Housing Census,” she added, saying the 2018 PHC exercise will be different from five previous censuses because the NSO will be using fast data processing computerized systems.
Kanyuka said the data would be analyzed using technologically advanced computers capable of speed procession of data that will be collected by about 20,000 enumerators who would be deployed across the country.
“Each of the 20,000 enumerators will be required to record data from 250 households that are clustered into small enumeration areas,” the Commissioner added.
With government funding, the NSO conducted a mapping exercise that helped to demarcate Malawi into the enumeration zones where the data collectors would record data from every person living in Malawi regardless of nationality.
The nationwide exercise has also been supported by development partners such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United States Agency for International Development and Standard Bank.
Speaking at the function, UNFPA Deputy Representative in Malawi, Dr. Rogaia Abdelrahim expressed hope that the trained personnel would transfer the acquired knowledge to other personnel that were expected to participate in the exercise.
The 80 trained personnel included directors of planning and development (DPDs), directors of administration, monitoring and evaluation officers, assistant district registrars (National Registration Bureau) from districts and city councils.
In his remarks, DPD for Mulanje District Council, Emmanuel Bulukutu said the two week training had built their capacity as district supervisors to enable them participate effectively in the PHC.
“It is expected that this group of 80 district supervisors drawn from all districts in Malawi will train other lower level supervisors and support monitoring of the PHC,” Bulukutu said.
The country conducted its first census in 1966 followed by other head counts in 1977, 1987, 1998 and 2008 whose results indicated population projections of 13.1 million which currently stands at an estimated 17 million.
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