THE Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO) in the Ministry of Finance and Treasury is coordinating efforts to count every citizen in the forthcoming 2019 National Population and Housing Census.
This is the sixth census survey the country to have since the first one was conducted in 1970 under the then British authority.
While the census enumeration is planned for November 2019 and will be announced by the Prime Minister later this year – 2019, the SINSO is now stepping up efforts in its preparation for the very important event (census).
Fortnight ago, the SINSO put out tenders in the newspapers for eligible bidders to bid for the supply of required goods and services to the census operation. That was the biggest ever tender the office has made with 24 lot ever since the country have conducted its first census then. And this week (Wednesday 13 Feb. 2019) the SINSO also published various vacancies/positions to be filled for the 2019 census operation.
Solomon Islands have its first census count in 1970, the second was in 1976, and again in 1986, 1999 and the latest and the fifth one in the series was in 2009.
Census is the official count of how many people and dwellings there are in the country (SI). It gives a unique snapshot of our communities. Information from the census helps determine how government funding is spent in the community. It is also used by the government/policy-makers to plan for the future.
Government Statistician, Douglas Kimi said the SINSO will be recruiting thousands of local residents (officers/enumerators) to help the census operation run smoothly.
Mr. Kimi said this will be the biggest undertaking for the country.
He said the SINSO is trying its best and collaborating to reach every communities across the country.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kimi said since this will be the largest nationwide census survey envisioned to take in records of every citizens no matter what age category and cultural background, it is important that everyone must support and collaborate with the SINSO and its field officers who will be out in the field for data collection.
He said this is a crucial undertaking to ensure the country have an updated population count thus collaborative effort and support is indeed appreciative in this regard to guarantee a successful census.
Mr. Kimi said unlike any other big events in the country like the Election registration which targets only specific age group (18-years old and above) with other surveys/events, Census is different and the biggest ever occasion as it take record of every single citizens of a country starting from age zero (0) and above.
Solomon Islands conducted census after every 10 years. The latest census was held in 2009.
Source: SINSO Media
