Finance minister Trevor Manual and the interministerial committee on the
census have been apprised of the process.
In just under a week Statistics SA will present the results of the 2001
population census to President Thabo Mbeki, who will launch them publicly on
Tuesday.
A population census is, obviously, about counting the number of people in a
country at a given time. Census 2001 will also report on the number of
people in a range of smaller areas - the provinces, municipal areas, towns,
villages and suburbs.
But this census has gathered information on far more than just the number of
people in defined areas. It will present a profile of the population
according to variables such as age, sex, language, disability, education and
work status. It will also provide details on households, such as the type of
housing unit occupied, access to water and toilet facilities, the type of
energy used for cooking, heating and lighting, and access to telephone and
refuse removal.
What is particularly exciting about the results of this census is that all
of this information will be available for small as well as larger areas -
for municipalities as well as provinces, for villages as well as suburbs in
established cities.
In addition, the information can be presented spatially, through
sophisticated but easy-to-use mapping software that will be made available
with some of the census digital products.
Products derived from census data have been carefully designed to meet a
range of user needs: from demographers to researchers; from development
planners to individual citizens concerned about good and democratic
governance; from school pupils to members of national and provincial
legislatures.
These products will be presented in a range of formats: printed books,
posters and pamphlets; digitised maps; analytical and interpretive reports;
and CD-Roms containing scores of software-selectable tables and maps that
can be customised by the user.
For the first time, Stats SA will be making census data available through
interactive, Web-based products, using specialised software solutions such
as PX. Web
Through this, users will be able to access and cross-tabulate individual and
household variables for the country as a whole, each province, and each
municipality.
For general users, the Census in Brief booklet will provide a convenient
source of information. It has over 80 tables and graphs presenting both
individual and household information nationally and for each of the nine
provinces.
More specialised users of statistics requiring greater detail will find the
community profile databases with geographical information system
applications the most effective way of customising statistics for small
areas.
This product will enable users to draw scores of tables for each of the 80
000-plus enumeration areas, and aggregate these upwards to profile electoral
wards and constituencies, suburbs, townships, villages, district councils,
municipalities, provinces or the country as a whole.
The methodologies employed in Census 2001, as well as the concepts and
definitions and metadata used, will be available to anyone who wants to
analyse the conceptualisation and organisation of the census.
How the Count Was Done will take readers on a tour of two-and-a-half years
of census planning, demarcation, listing, training, enumeration, data
processing and editing; while concepts, definitions and the metadata files
will be freely available.
Most census products will be made available without charge or at a nominal
cost to avoid wastage.
As Stats SA's pricing policy puts it, the department "seeks the broadest
possible dissemination of the statistical data it collects and the services
it offers".
As a general principle, Stats SA does not seek to recover the costs of data
collected, products developed or standard services provided, as these costs
are met by an allocation voted by parliament.
Publisher: Business Report
Source: Business Report
Census 2001 data comprehensive and accessible.
Posted On Thursday, 03 July 2003 02:00 Published by eProperty News
The Statistics Council has completed its evaluation of Census 2001 data.
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