SIGNIFICANT progress has been made in collecting data for the Guyana Population and Housing Census 2012, especially in the outlying areas, where work is ahead of schedule; but with 10 days before the exercise ends, Regions 4 and 6 are proving problematic, since enumerators are unable to contact householders during the week because those householders are not at home, necessitating revisits and resulting in delays.

Census Officer Lennox Benjamin disclosed at a press briefing yesterday that, “(The census) is slightly behind schedule.” And while he is fully satisfied with the level of preparedness by his team, some of the enumerators have found the task daunting and have dropped out of the exercise.
The census is presently being conducted with just over 2000 enumerators, although nearly 3000 have been trained. The remaining enumerators are consequently forced to carry a bigger workload, which, coupled with poor literacy skills, has further challenged the timeline for completion of the exercise.
Preliminary findings of the 2012 census are as yet not available, according to Benjamin, but 20 persons have already been trained to edit and process the raw data. This exercise will commence shortly.
Census 2012 is scheduled to last for 42 days, but it will take close to a year before any pronouncements can be made on its findings.
Meanwhile, in a message to mark Caribbean Statistics day yesterday, Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh commended the work of the Bureau of Statistics, “which continues to meet all challenges, produce despite restraints, and contribute both nationally and regionally to the provision of statistical data of all dimensions that is always in demand.”