Preliminary Census Results expected by mid-July

By mid July, residents of the BVI should know the results of this year’s population and housing census, according to a senior official at the
Development Planning Unit.

A census is a count or inventory of all individuals residing in a country at a particular time. This is a major exercise undertaken every 10 years because
of the extent of it and the effort required.

It involves a collection of vital information on major characteristics such as demographics, education, employment, income, fertility, mortality, the
informal sector, the number and conditions of housing stock, among other areas. This information represents the most complete database any country
could have at hand at any given time.

For reasons of comparability, the past two or three censuses were done at the regional level in collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The exercise in the BVI began April 23rd and should have been completed May
23rd.

“However, due to factors like persons not being at home, refusals of cooperation and other factors, we are still in the field,” Raymond Phillips, Deputy Director of Planning told the Island Sun Monday. He estimated then that they were about 80% complete and were hoping to wrap it up by this
weekend.

Some 55 enumerators, complemented by another 11 supervisors, were trained and sent out into the field. There are also two overall supervisors.
The DPU official said some of the enumerators have been having a problem where residents are refusing to respond because of the sensitive nature of
some of the questions. But he encouraged everyone to cooperate, assuring them that all of the enumerators have taken an oath of confidentiality,
which, if breached, can result in prosecution.

Residents have reportedly been uncooperative in answering questions relating to fertility, income and marital status. Mr. Phillips said without this type of information, it would be difficult to do population projections for the future. “When doing population projections, three things have to be considered - fertility and migration, which increases a population and mortality, which decreases it,” he pointed out. “It would be difficult for government to do any social or even spatial planning if they’re not aware or cannot measure how many individuals will be occupying any specific area at any given time.”

Due to population projections for example, government might determine that a school needs to be built in a particular community.
Looking at income, persons are generally reluctant to reveal this information. However, the official noted that the information required is not exact but should be provided within a range, to make it a little less sensitive and personal. “Income information is very important from the standpoint of poverty analysis,” said the Deputy Director pf Planning in the Development Planning Unit. He said even though it is said that there are no poor people in the BVI, this has to be corroborated by statistics.

International conventions declare that every person has the right to be able to afford basic needs. Because of this, the BVI has to have this data to
show compliance with these conventions. Mr. Phillips added that it is also important to document whether one’s income is based on a salary only or supplemented by remittances, pension, disability benefits, Social Security or even income from rented houses etc. “Another real touchy area was the issue of marital/union status,” he went on to say. He explained that this tries to capture visiting relationships, which obviously could be quite a sensitive area. But, he said because of the reality of the BVI being a high immigration country where young persons of working age and unmarried are the ones more likely to migrate, this has a lot of social implications that must be taken into consideration.

According to him, it is important that everyone understands how important it is for government to have this information. He reiterated that this information helps in planning in an effort to provide better living conditions for not only BVIslanders, but also all the residents of these islands. Mr. Phillips assured residents that all of the information collected is held in the strictest of confidence. “So, we’re really soliciting the full cooperation of everyone, so that we can get this exercise over with and have a complete and accurate database from which the government and ultimately the population can benefit.”

He said as soon as the enumerators are out of the field and the DPU is satisfied that full coverage has occurred, preliminary figures can be expected within a week or two. He said the figures would be provisional, but there would hardly be any substantial changes. The official figures are expected in a few months, after going through a process of editing, coding and checking for consistency.

The last population and housing census was done in 1991. Figures indicated a population count of around 17,000, with just over 5,300 households. “This time, based on projections made by the DPU, we anticipate a population of about 23,000 and just over 8,000 households,” Mr. Phillips told The Island Sun.