The 3rd population and housing census of Ethiopia commenced on 28 May 2007.  May is the driest month when the majority of the rural population is less active in the year.  The enumeration of the population and its characteristics was planned to be carried out over a two-week period except for the nomadic population in the eastern part of the country where the exercise will be undertaken in November 2007. The 1st and 2nd national population and housing census were conducted in 1984 and 1994 respectively. The 2007 census, which will cover all of the country except the nomadic population in the eastern region, was carried out with the help of about 16,000 field supervisors and 81,000 enumerators.  The supervisors are to a large extent high school teachers.  The supervisors attended “Training of trainers” course towards the end of April 2007 after which they were responsible for training enumerators.  Preparatory activities for the census included substantive use of GIS and GPS technology especially for the demarcation of enumeration areas.  Ethiopia will use OCR for data capture for the first time. Most of the funding for the census is being provided by the Government of Ethiopia.