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Delay in publishing population and census results
Officials of the Department of Census and Statistics say the delay in publishing the final results of the Population and Housing census conducted earlier this year, is due to a delay in the procurement of a building to carry out the scanning analysis of the data collected.
Dismissing charges that the delay has been caused by inaccuracy in the data collected in the first islandwide census in more than three decades, Additional Director General G.Y.L. Fernando said the final results would be published by July next year.
“The delay in the process of dissemination was due to a delay in the procurement process for a building to carry out the scanning analysis of the data collected by enumerators. The data analysis was to start immediately following the data collection process, but getting necessary approval to utilise infrastructure to start scanning of data was delayed,” he said.
The Department has issued two initial reports using the data in enumerator summaries which contain population by district and population categorised by age groups, gender, ethnicity and other parameters.
He explained that enumerator summaries are reports made by enumerators on data collected by each one of them, and that these two reports were published about one month ago, completing the first and second stages of data publication.
When queried about charges regarding the lack of accuracy in the data collected by enumerators, Mr. Fernando said that such accusations cannot be accepted, as the Department, for its part, has taken numerous measures to ensure the accuracy of data.
“We can’t accept those accusations. In carrying out an islandwide census, there can be minor errors in the data, but the fact that there are major errors is unacceptable. We recruited 80,000 well trained enumerators, placed supervisors and all possible measures were taken to ensure that correct and precise data were obtained,” he said.
The preliminary reports of the 14th Population and Housing census carried out by the Department of Census of Statistics, placed Sri Lanka’s population at 20,277,597, while Colombo continued to be the district with the highest population, with a total population of 2,323,588 and Gampaha second highest with a population of 2,298,588.
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