By the end of the first quarter of 2023, the Dominican State will know the size of its population, when the preliminary results of the tenth National Population and Housing Census, which is scheduled to take place in November this year.
By the end of the first quarter of 2023, the Dominican State will know what the real size of its population is, when the preliminary results of the tenth National Population and Housing Census, which is scheduled to take place in November this year.
The director of Census of the National Statistics Office (ONE), Víctor Romero, points out that for the collection of sociodemographic information, mobile capture devices (tablets) will be incorporated, which will allow the personnel working in the census collect information digitally.
Romero explains that the technological devices will contribute to reducing data availability times, avoiding the digitization process of this and helping to improve the quality of the information collected, because they will have controls and validations that would allow better monitoring. progress of the field operation.
Indicates that for this year the census has budgeted RD$2,875 million, but clarifies that in 2020 resources were invested and that next year the study will also entail an expense.
“Last year we consumed a lot of resources in the cartographic update. The composition of this budget (RD$2,875 million) will be around 19 percent in equipment and materials, 30 percent in equipment and technological services. There are fees, per diems, per diems, for the personnel who will be on the ground for a month”, he details.
“We need a census to develop policies, design public and social policies”Census Director
The official highlights that the use of technology gives more timely results and better quality of collection in the field, stating that it allows detecting abnormal patterns, such as the fact that a pollster is performing above average.
“The reliability of the data is not necessarily associated with the technology, but with the responsibility of the individual (enumerator) who captures it,” he adds.
The person in charge of census He maintains that, no later than the end of June or July of this year, everything should be ready to start the process of packing and packaging the census material.
It points out that the collection of data will have a duration of 14 days. He reports that 29,500 people are expected to participate in the operational part, although he specifies that these are preliminary figures, depending on the conclusion of the cartographic update “which is one of the processes that we are doing in preparation for the census”.
Víctor Romero adds that the estimated time for registration will be between 27 and 28 minutes, on average, from the introduction to the end.
two year delay
The last census made in the Dominican Republic was in 2010, presenting at present a delay of two years in its realization, due to the fact that it should be produced in 2020.
The last census showed that the Dominican population amounted to 9,445,281 people, 50.17% of them men and 49.83% women.
“The census It is such a particular activity that it is replicated and executed every 10 years because it is expensive. In the Dominican case, there was a combination of factors: it coincided with an election year, and the authorities at the time decided to postpone it a bit so that it would not coincide with the elections, and then the pandemic,” he points out.
The census It will determine the basic services that the houses receive, their conditions and quality in general, and the sociodemographic aspects of the people, elements that, combined, determine the quality of life, explains the director.
“We need census for the development of policies, design of public and social policies”, he declares.
