Mozambique Census, 2007
Source: Mozambique Instituto Nacional de Estatística (National Statistics Institute)
Date: 28 September, 2007

The Mozambique Third Population and Housing Census after independence (independence was achieved in 1975) was conducted from 1st to 15th August 2007, ten years after the 1997 census. In Mozambique, the regular interval between censuses is of ten years. The 2007 census covered the whole country, and to assure the simultaneity of the census, a time reference for the Mozambique Census was established as 1st August 2007 (at zero hours). In 2007, the population of Mozambique is estimated at 20,366,795 inhabitants.

Among the preparatory activities, emphasis was put on census cartography, which started in 2005. The main objective of the census cartography was to define enumeration areas (EAs) for the whole country. An EA corresponds to the geographical space to be covered by an enumerator during the data collection period.

Also, it is important to mention the administrative organization of the preparatory phase of the census which involved the creation of executive organs at the national, subnational, and local levels, since the execution of the census was decentralized.

At the national level, the Census Central Unit was established, composed of eight commissions for, respectively: administration and finances; cartography; methodology and analysis; training; field operations; data processing; census security; and information and publicity. Also, a Coordination Committee was set up comprising of various ministers and headed by the Prime Minister.

At the provincial level, there was a Provincial Census Office and a Census Provincial Committee, composed of various provincial Directors and headed by the provincial Governor.

At the district and local levels there were only executive census offices.

For the collection of information, enumerators were assigned to different enumeration areas. They covered all the households and individuals in the enumeration area during the fifteen days and also registered characteristics of all the houses in that area based on the items of the census questionnaire.

The table below shows the number of persons involved in the census operation and their respective roles:

The census questionnaire was designed to obtain, among others, information related to:

Thirty days after data collection, on 16th September 2007, the Post Enumeration Survey (PES) was launched and it was carried out until 30 September. The PES was conducted by 340 enumerators in 340 EAs at the national level. The main objective of the PES is assessing the degree of coverage of the census enumeration and the results will provide information on the characteristics of persons who may have been missed during the census enumeration. These results will be representative at national level, urban and rural areas at the national level, and also at the provincial level.

The dissemination of the preliminary results is expected to be in November 2007. The preliminary results will represent the total national population by sex and also the number of houses and households at the national and subnational levels. This information will be based on the field information filled by the enumerators in the daily summary forms.

The dissemination of the final results at national level will be in 2009. However, dissemination of final results for at least six provinces is planned for 2008.

Coders for the coding of data in the census questionnaires have been recruited and the process of coding is planed to last almost 1 year, from October 2007.

Two or three months later, the process of data entry will begin and it is expected to last for one year. It is planned that for data entry and for the tabulation programme, CSPro will be used. Information from the city of Maputo will be the first to be entered and then after Maputo Province, other areas will be covered running from the South to the North of the country. Once data entry for any province data is finalized, the data will be tabulated, analyzed and disseminated. Both printed publications and electronic dissemination will be utilized.

For more information, visit:  http://www.ine.gov.mz/censo2007.

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