The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has scheduled the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) for Sunday, June 27, 2021.

Ghana conducts the Population and Housing Census (PHC) every ten years. However, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is slated for the aforementioned date.

Ahead of the exercise, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, will today launch the countdown. It is dubbed “100 days to 2021 Population and Housing Census”. The countdown is a series of activities for the next 100 days to sensitizes the public on the census.

Preparations Made

The Census Advisor to the Government Statistician, Mr Kofi Agyeman-Duah, has said that the GSS had made all the preparations for the census. He noted that the census was a process. Therefore, GSS had been preparing for its night for at least two years. The process was divided into three main phases, he added. First, the deployment of field staff to demarcate the whole country into smaller units, draw digital maps, and take the geographical position of all localities. Second, the development of relevant questionnaires which would be used to collect the data. Then, the testing of the questionnaire on three occasions.

“This one will be a digitized census, so we will be using tablets to collect the information. As the information is being captured, it will be transmitted to a central server at the GSS. So, in real time, we will know what is happening.”

Furthermore, he said GSS was in the process of recruiting about 75,000 staff for the exercise. Out of this number, some will be national trainers and regional trainers. The rest will be on the field to collect the data. Mr Agyeman-Duah said the GSS had already recruited the national trainers who were being trained.

Mr Agyeman-Duah made this known in an interview with another sister station.

Census Night

He said the census night, which had been scheduled for June 27, 2021, is just a reference night. It does not mean all the data would be collected on that night, he added.

“The actual work of data gathering will start a day after the census night, the night used as a reference day. So, the census will capture the situation of the country in terms of housing and people in the country, using that night as the reference.

“… if someone arrived in the country a day after the census night, he or she will not be captured. If someone also dies just days after the census night, he will be captured. Even if we use two weeks to gather all the data, what the census is supposed to give you is a reflection of the situation as of the census night.”
Mr Agyeman-Duah, Census Advisor to the Government Statistician

Mr Agyeman-Duah then urged the public to participate in the census, saying it would help the government plan for its citizens.

“In every home, if you don’t know the number of people you have in your household, you will not be able to plan for them. Knowing the numbers and what they speak to will help the government plan for the country.”

He also gave an assurance that all COVID-19 protocols would be observed in all the processes leading to the census, and that the exercise would not be a source of the spread of the virus.