A. Status of implementation

1. The conduct of the 2000 round of population and housing censuses in Asia and the Pacific has been of global significance. The combined population of the countries carrying out censuses in this round equals approximately 60 per cent of the world’s population. The total population of seven regional members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)—Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan and the Russian Federation—in 2001 equals 3.08 billion, or 50 per cent of the world population.

2. Among the most notable achievements of the 2000 round of censuses are the following:

§ The population and housing census in March 1998 in Pakistan was the first one since 1981;

§ The census of population and housing in June 2001 in Sri Lanka was also the first one carried out in that country since 1981, a period of 20 years;

§ The national population census of 3 March 1998 in Cambodia was the first one conducted there since 1962, a period of 36 years;

§ India enumerated over one billion persons for the first time, becoming the second country to do so. The census of India enumerated a population of 1.027 billion as of 1 March 2001; and

§ For the first time, the population census of Mongolia, conducted with a reference date of 5 January 2000, was based largely on United Nations principles and recommendations and is considered to be the first truly modern census carried out in the country.

3. Table 1 presents the dates of censuses carried out and planned during the 1990 and 2000 rounds in Asia and the Pacific.

B. Technological advances

4. National census offices employed markedly higher levels of technology at nearly every stage of census operations during the 2000 round than during the 1990 round. As would be expected, more developed countries were more likely than less developed countries to use advanced technology. Many of the developing countries in the region do not yet employ digitized mapping for census-taking purposes, presumably because maps from existing systems are available and because of the financial cost and time involved in setting up a new system.

5. The National Statistical Office (NSO) of the Republic of Korea created digital maps of its 132,000 enumeration districts (EDs). That process took over three and one half years, beginning with the collection of GIS (geographical information system) data and continuing until digital maps of all EDs could be easily retrieved by computer. Those maps may be used not only for the population census but also for the agriculture and industry censuses, for example.

6. At the data-collection stage, Australia used computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and Singapore used computer assisted telephone-interviewing (CATI).

7. Many countries in the region began to use optical character recognition (OCR) or intelligent character recognition (ICR) systems for capturing data from census forms. The use of these systems was not directly related to level of development. Countries that continued to rely on keyboard entry of data included Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. Bangladesh and Pakistan employed optical mark readers (OMR). Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Macao Special Administrative Region of China, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Turkey employed OCR/ICR systems. It may be noted that some countries used more than one mode of data capture. Singapore used a tri-modal approach.

8. Because of these technologies, many countries were able to release preliminary census data in only a few months and many final results in about one year. Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam, among others, used a short form for a 100-per-cent enumeration and a long form for a sample (generally 10-20 per cent) of the population. Malaysia first processed the questions that did not require manual coding, then those that did. These approaches all helped to speed the release of census results.

9. Many census offices also decreased data-processing time by decentralizing the work to a number of subnational centres. China used provincial census offices for quality control and monitoring of progress. Both India and Indonesia decentralized data processing to 15 locations. In Pakistan data processing took place in two locations. Malaysia used 13 data-capture centres, while the Philippines used four and Thailand used 15.

10. Because of technological innovations, data storage, dissemination and analysis are becoming increasingly closely linked. Most census offices in the Asian and Pacific region now make census data available on computer diskettes, CD-ROMs and the Internet, in addition to producing a variety of publications. Many dissemination strategies target government offices that will be the primary users. In Nepal, for example, a local-area network will provide census data to users within the Central Bureau of Statistics and a wide-area network will provide data to the National Planning Commission, the Ministry of Population and Environment and others.

11. The types of census data disseminated on CD-ROM by the National Institute of Statistics in Cambodia provide a good example of the use of that medium. They are noted below.

CD #1 Census priority tables

This CD contains the 47 priority tables from the census for the country as a whole, urban areas, rural areas, 24 provinces and 180 districts. The CD also contains a user-friendly table-retrieval system.

CD #2 Village-level data

This CD contains aggregated data for the 180 districts, 1,594 communes and 13,339 villages covered by the 1998 census. The database contains information on age, sex, relationship to head of household, marital status, literacy, school attendance, educational attainment and household amenities.

CD #3 PopMap application

This CD is a PopMap application containing outline maps of provinces, districts and communes. Information on villages, schools, roads and rivers is included. The application has a database of 123 demographic and socio-economic indicators from the census and other sources.

CD #4 Microlevel population database in REDATAM WinR+

This CD contains individual census records from which cross-tabulations can be made of any variables for any geographical area down to villages. REDATAM WinR+ was developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. An extensive users’ guide is distributed with the CD.

The main census tables for Cambodia are also available on the web site of the National Statistical Office: www.nis.gov.kh.

12. Malaysia can present its census data with an ArcInfo application, and Samoa does so using MapInfo.

13. In order to assist national census offices to learn about and apply new technologies, the ESCAP Statistics Division implemented a project on “Application of New Technology in Population Data Collection, Processing, Dissemination and Presentation” (RAS/96/P12) between 1996 and 2001. The project was funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). ESCAP formed a Working Party on the Application of New Technology in Population Data. ESCAP organized two workshops and four technical meetings under the auspices of the project. The background papers, country papers and reports of the workshops are available on the ESCAP web site at www.unescap.org/statistics.

C. Analysis of census data

14. Census publications generally include a preliminary report, the main report and monographs on special topics. Census data are usually the basis for preparing five-year development plans and national and subnational population projections.

15. National census offices in Asia and the Pacific have extensive dissemination plans for making census data available to users. As noted in the previous section, dissemination media now include electronic means, especially diskettes, CD-ROMs and the Internet. The electronic forms have greatly benefited data users in government offices and researchers in government and university institutes. They have made much more data available to users than in the past, and in forms that were more valuable, i.e., individual records, village-level data, tables that can be exported to spreadsheet software and mapping applications.

16. As significant as the technological innovations in disseminating census results, however, have been the pro-active dissemination strategies adopted by a number of census offices. The Office of the Registrar General, India, established a data users’ service centre in 1991, which disseminates data on diskettes and CD-ROMs. The centre also disseminates data for small areas upon demand. Data and information are available on its web site at: www.censusindia.net.

17. In order to prepare census monographs on special topics, the National Institute of Statistics in Cambodia conducted workshops for each monograph. Participants from other concerned government ministries were invited to participate in the workshops so that they would understand the concepts and definitions used by the census and become familiar with using census data for research and analysis relevant to their work. For example, officials from the Ministry of Health participated in the workshop for the preparation of the census monograph on fertility and mortality. In both Cambodia and Viet Nam, officials from the respective Ministries of Labour participated in workshops for the preparation of monographs on the labour force and employment.

18. In both Cambodia and Mongolia, the census office organized workshops at the provincial level to inform officials about the census results and how to use census data in their planning activities. The Central Bureau of Statistics in Nepal also plans to conduct many dissemination seminars to inform users about the census results.

19. Many of these innovative and pro-active approaches are described in a paper titled “Strategies for Census Data Analysis, Dissemination and Utilization: Lessons Learned from the East and South-East Asian Experience,” (Occasional Paper Series No. 9, published by the UNFPA Country Technical Services Team (CST) for East and South-East Asia, Bangkok). The paper was prepared jointly by the CST and the ESCAP Population and Rural and Urban Development Division, based on their experience in working with national census offices to analyse and disseminate census data.

20. In summary, because of the application of advanced technology, national census offices are able to collect, process and disseminate census data more accurately and more rapidly than in the past. They have also made census data more valuable to government users and researchers by releasing more detailed data in a great variety of formats and media. Inexpensive CD-ROMs and Internet web sites have given individual users unprecedented access to census databases. In addition to the advances based on technology, many census offices have developed pro-active strategies to inform key users about census results and how to use them.

Table 1 Dates of 1990 and 2000 rounds of population and housing censuses in Asia and the Pacific

Country	1990 Round	2000 Round
Country	1990 Round	1995-1999	2000-2004
ASIA
Afghanistan	-	-	-
Armenia	12 January 1989	-	10-19 October 2001
Azerbaijan	12 January 1989	27 January 1999	-
Bangladesh	11 March 1991	-	27 January 2001
Bhutan	-	-	-
Brunei Darussalam	7 August 1991	-	May 2001
Cambodia	-	3 March 1998(P)	-
China	1 July 1990	-	1 November 2000 (P)
China, Hong Kong SAR	11 March 1986	16 March 1996	March 2001
China, Hong Kong SAR	15 March 1991	-	-
China, Macao SAR	30 August 1991	-	2001
East Timor	31 October 1990 (P)	-	2000
Georgia	12 January 1989	-	17 January 2002
India	1 March 1991	-	1 March 2001
Indonesia	31 October 1990	-	30 June 2000
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	22 September 1986	September-October 1996	-
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	11 December 1991	-	-
Japan	1 October 1985 (P)	1 October 1995 (P)	1 October 2000 (P)
Japan	1 October 1988(H)	October 1998 (H)	March 2003 (H)
Kazakhstan	12 January 1989	26 February 1999	-
Korea, Democratic People’s Republic	31 December 1993 (P)	(….)	(…)
Korea, Republic of	1 November 1985	1 November 1995	1 November 2000
Korea, Republic of	1 November 1990
Kyrgyzstan	12 January 1989	25 March 1999
Lao People’s Dem.Rep.	1 March 1985 (P)	1 March 1995
Malaysia	14 August 1991	-	5 July 2000
Maldives	25-28 March 1985	25 March 1995	March 2000
Maldives	8 March 1990	-	-
Mongolia	5 January 1989	-	5-11 January 2000
Myanmar	-	-	(…)
Nepal	22 June 1991	-	22 June 2001
Pakistan	-	2-18 March 1998	-
Philippines	1 May 1990	1 September 1995	1 May 2000
Singapore	30 June 1990	-	2000
Sri Lanka	1991	-	June 2001
Tajikistan	12 January 1989	-	January 2000
Thailand	1 April 1990	-	1 April 2000
Turkey	20 October 1985	October 1997 (H)	October 2000
Turkey	21 October 1990	-	-
Turkmenistan	12 January 1989	10 January 1995	January 2004
Uzbekistan	12 January 1989	-	-
Viet Nam	1 April 1989	1 April 1999	-

Country	1990 Round	2000 Round
Country	1990 Round	1995-1999	2000-2004
PACIFIC
American Samoa	1 April 1990	-	April 2000
Australia	30 June 1986	1996	7 August 2001
Australia	30 June 1991
Cook Islands	1 December 1986	1 December 1996	-
Cook Islands	1 December 1991
Fiji	31 August 1986	25 August 1996	-
French Polynesia	6 September 1988	3 September 1996	(-)
Guam	1 April 1990	-	April 2000
Kiribati	10 May 1985	7 November 1995	November 2000
Kiribati	7 November 1990
Marshall Islands	13 November 1988	1999	-
Micronesia, Federated States of	1985-1989	-	2004
Micronesia, Federated States of	18 September 1994
Nauru	17 April 1992	-	2001
New Caledonia	4 April 1989	16 April 1996	2002
New Zealand	4 March 1986	5 March 1996	6 March 2001
New Zealand	5 March 1991
Niue	29 September 1986	17 August 1997	(-)
Niue	3 November 1991
Norfolk Island	30 June 1986	30 June 1996	2001
Norfolk Island	2 August 1991
Northern Mariana Islands	1 April 1990	9 September 1995	April 2000
Palau	January-March 1986	9 September 1995	2000
Palau	1 April 1990
Papua New Guinea	11 July 1990	-	9 July 2000
Samoa	3-4 November 1986	-	November 2001
Samoa	5 November 1991
Solomon Islands	23 November 1986	November 1999	-
Tokelau	1986	(…)	(…)
Tokelau	1991
Tonga	28 November 1986	[1996]	-
Tuvalu	June 1985 (P)	-	November 2001
Tuvalu	17 November 1991
Vanuatu	20 January 1986 (P)	16-30 November 1999	-
Vanuatu	16 May 1989	-	-
Wallis and Futuna Islands	1990 (P)	3 October 1996	2002

Source: http://www.un.org - Economic and Social Development/Statistics/Censuses.

Notes: (P) Population census only. (H) Housing census only.

* This informal note has neither been officially cleared nor edited by ESCAP. This document was reproduced without formal editing

** Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Bangkok, Thailand. The views expressed in the paper are those of the author and do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the United Nations Secretariat.