Countdown to Census 2001... "A Count for the Future"

Contact: Tesa St. Ange

Tuesday, January 30, 2001 – The Department of Statistics is gearing up for Census 2001 and is banking heavily on available new technology to make its work easier and the report more accessible to the public. The department anticipates that new technologies employed during the 2001 Population and Housing census will assist in future data collection and analysis activities, making them more relevant to current concerns and policies.

According to Director of Statistics, Edwin St. Catherine, this year a National Advisory Committee has considered the production of a questionnaire that reflects the dynamics of the St. Lucian society since the last census in 1991. This year’s census will take into account a number of new developments in information technology, the marginalisation of men, crime, traffic congestion, unemployment especially among the youth, housing, migration, work at home and social and health insurance.

The 2001 Census is expected to set the framework for a National Household Capability Programme, which will feature an ongoing Labour Force Survey as well as other specialized surveys. It will include questions on disability and health thus providing "frames" for in-depth studies on these two subjects. Analyses will be done on the addresses of the workplace and schools, for those attending such institutions, in an effort to look at transportation logistics.

Local media practitioners are expected to play a key role in the upcoming census. Monday, Statistical officials held a Media Practitioners workshop to brief the media on their role in achieving success at the May 22^nd national decennial census, particularly in sensitising the public to the need to participate in the census and the accurate reporting of the findings.

Censuses are counts of a country’s population size, distribution and characteristics at a specific time and are conducted under the Statistics Act, No 13 of 1973. The first reported Census to be taken in St. Lucia was in August 1843 and the last one took place in 1991.

Census taking provides policy makers with a most comprehensive range of social, economic and demographic indicators to guide planning and development. Specifically, population censuses provide essential information for appropriate policy-formulation, planning and administration aimed at improving the welfare of the country. In addition, the population census provides indispensable data for research purposes and for business, industry and labour. It is the source of information that channels the direction of a ten-year development plan.

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