NSCB to conduct census of housing and population

MANILA, Philippines - Don’t drive the statisticians away when they come knocking at your door.

This was the appeal issued over the weekend by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), the government’s policy-making body on statistical matters, as it urged the public to provide “utmost cooperation and support for the success of the 2010 Census of Population and Housing.”

The survey will be conducted by the National Statistics Office from May 17 to June 11 this year with May 1, 2010 as the reference date.

In accordance with Commonwealth Act 591, Batas Pambansa Blg. 72 and Executive Order 121, the census is a nationwide undertaking that aims to get the inventory of the total population and housing units by area in the country and collect information about their characteristics, as basis for the formulation of rational plans and programs for national and local development.

NSCB officer-in-charge Lina Castro said the 2010 Census of Population and Housing will be the 13th census of population and the 6th census of housing since the first census was conducted in 1903.

During the survey, the NSO would gather data and information on the size, distribution and composition of the population in terms of age, sex and marital status in the Philippines; birth registration, disability, functional difficulty, literacy, school attendance, place of school, highest educational attainment, residence five years ago, overseas employment, usual occupation, kind of business or industry, class of worker, place of work, fertility, religion, citizenship, ethnicity and functional difficulty; the household characteristics, such as language and dialect generally spoken at home, presence of household conveniences and availability of information and communications technology devices, and Internet access.

Other information to be covered by the census include data on housing units in the country and their characteristics, such as type of building or house, construction materials of the roof and outer walls, tenure status of the house and lot, fuel used for lighting and cooking, source of water supply, toilet facility and manner of garbage disposal; and the characteristics of the barangay, which will be used as basis for urban-rural classification.

Results of the 2007 Census of Population (POPCEN 2007) revealed that the total population in the Philippines has reached 88.57 million as of August 1, 2007 with an estimated annual growth rate of 2.04 percent for the period 2000 to 2007.

In 2007, Cavite was the most populous province with 2.86 million people, followed by Bulacan and Pangasinan with 2.83 million and 2.65 million people, respectively; Among 32 highly urbanized cities (HUCs), Quezon City had the biggest population with 2.68 million people.

For the 2010 census, the government had set aside a total budget of P2.16 billion to cover personal services, traveling expenses, supplies, printing expenses and others.

About 58,000 enumerators, 11,500 team supervisors, 3,300 census area supervisors and 2,800 assistant census area supervisors will be involved in the conduct of the 2010 census.