Long-awaited census report set for next fiscal year

After an extended delay in producing a report on the 2022 Population and Housing Census, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has signalled that the long-awaited survey on the national population count will be revealed during the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

STATIN has come under increased pressure in recent times to provide a definitive timeline for the completion of the census but prior to last Wednesday, the agency remained tight-lipped for months to commit itself to a new deadline.

Data collection for the census, which is Jamaica’s 15th, started in September 2022 and was expected to last for four months. However, it was extended with face-to-face data collection by contracted census workers, with a December 2023 deadline.

Senior officials from STATIN who appeared before the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament on Wednesday said although the extended data collection period was unprecedented for Jamaica, it was a feature of the 2020 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses.

Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson had criticised the extended delay in producing a report, noting that the Government spent $4 billion with fewer than one million people counted. Jamaica’s population is estimated to be close to three million people.

Deputy Director General of STATIN, Leesha Delatie-Budair, told PAAC members that it would take about six months to complete the volume of data processing by STATIN and its international partners before the agency was able to produce a report.

“So we are looking to have the report on the census completed in fiscal year 2025-2026,” she said.

Director General of STATIN, Carol Coy, told committee members that a technical mission on the census is expected to begin work with STATIN in September.

She said the mission would include a combined team of international experts from several international organisations working with the institute on data cleaning, validation and derivation of indicators.

At the same time, Delatie-Budair said STATIN had to wait until September before it started data processing, as the technical team from abroad was assisting other countries at this time and would only be available starting a little more than a month from now.

SEVERAL CHALLENGES

Kerensia Morrison, a member of the PAAC, enquired about the integrity of the data as she sought an assurance that the information obtained and processed would be accurate.

The deputy director general explained that one of the main implications of the challenges of the census was that STATIN would not be able to produce disaggregated data for some indicators.

Citing an indicator such as access and use of information communication technology, Delatie-Budair said that question was dropped from the long form used in the census, which now meant that it could only be reported at an aggregated level.

“In terms of the quality of the data and the final count because of the challenges of the census, what we have been introducing is significantly more data validation techniques which are what our international partners are coming here to assist us with,” she added.

Discussing the challenges encountered while collecting data, STATIN officials said there were administrative hiccups at the start of data collection, but the institute was able to make adjustments and treat with most of these issues.

Also affecting the census were heightened concerns about privacy, security, and the proliferation of gated communities, said Coy, who noted that this significantly impeded the ability to reach persons living in these communities and compounded the frustration of census workers.

“Obtaining access to some gated communities was logistically complex, and despite soliciting the support of key stakeholders, there were major delays in accessing these communities,” she added.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com