THE 2012 Population Census was officially inaugurated yesterday at a press conference in Regency Suites Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown and today September 15 has been declared Census Day.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh announced that almost US$4M had been allocated in the 2012 budget to fund the exercise and, immediately after the allocation was passed, technical preparations began, which involved preparing questionnaires and training of staff.
He emphasised the importance of the count, noting that the information that will be derived would not only be useful or relevant for governmental purposes, but also for other stakeholders, such as business leaders and academics.
Dr Singh took the opportunity to congratulate the Bureau of Statistics on its work during the 2002 counting, which was well executed and for how it prepared for 2012.
He called on every citizen in Guyana to participate in the undertaking since it is of “tremendous national importance”, pointing out that it is compulsory, by law, for everyone to be counted and urged everyone to cooperate with enumerators.
Regional Census Coordinator at the Caricom Secretariat, Mr. John Mensah, explained that the national census is not only of importance to the country itself but to the Region, as well.
He said member countries of the Caribbean Community are participating in the World Population and Housing Census Programme and data from it is one of the wide ranges of statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics and other agencies in member states that the CARICOM Secretariat collects.
These statistics are compiled in regional databases and then disseminated to users regionally and internationally and the Secretariat would partner with international agencies, such as the European Union (EU) and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others, to seek to build capacity in member countries to produce statistics required for policy formulation and the strengthening of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).
16 countries
Mensah advised that 16 countries in the region have already conducted their censuses while 10 have released their results.
Also present at yesterday’s formal launching was Chief Statistician of the Bureau of Statistics, Mr. Lennox Benjamin, who spoke about how the census will be conducted.
He advised that the first household to be counted this morning would be that of President Donald Ramotar, followed by that of Prime Minister Sam Hinds and then the general public.
Benjamin said every single building within the borders of Guyana will be visited and all occupants would be enumerated. However, the period of time considered ‘census night’ is September 15 from 12:00 midnight to 06:00 hrs.
He said, further, that, although the actual collection of data will take approximately six weeks starting today, only that of persons alive during census night will be recorded.
Benjamin stressed that this national census is not a census of Guyanese but rather of all residents found within the borders of Guyana on census night and, therefore, includes foreigners. He said, even crew members on ships in port on census night will be counted.
Chief Executive Officer of Tagman Consultants, Mr. Alex Graham, who chaired the forum, disclosed that various public information/education exercises will be conducted throughout Guyana, the first of which was held yesterday at Stabroek Market Square in the city.