Head of Publicity, Education and Advocacy at the 2021 Population and Housing Census, Francis Nyarko Larbi says that the inadequate amount of resources is why the counting exercise is carried out every 10 years.
He shared that countries with adequate resources and infrastructure normally undertake their census in periods less than 10 years. “The need for census is very important and countries with well-built administrative structures can have the exercise carried out in less than a space of 10 years.”
According to him, the United Nation (UN) realizing the importance of census found a way to regulate the exercise and make sure that the countries who did not have adequate resources for regular counting “to be able to save up and undertake the census exercise in an interval of 10 years.”
Francis Nyarko Larbi noted that when census happens, the national database is updated “and from there on, we start to project the population growth till the next census. After a period of ten years your projections are no more accurate and the country should’ve been able to have save enough so that it updates its database for the next ten years.”
He explained that the information taken for census include the number of people in a household, their gender, age profiles amongst of others.
Explaining reasons behind the counting of structures, he added, “We are not just counting houses but taking note of their nature. This informs us of the living conditions of the ordinary Ghanaian, their health situations and this helps to influence policies.”
The projected estimate of the 2021 PHC is 31million and the outfit responsible for the exercise has some 75,000 officers, numerators and data quality officers ready for the nationwide count on 27th June, 2021.