Stats SA to begin with ‘Census Night’ on Wednesday

Statistics South Africa will on Wednesday begin with what it calls Census night during which it will count people such as the homeless and those who may be away from their homes and staying at hotels, travelling or who are in hospitals.

The fourth population tally will run from February 3-28. Household registration for the country’s first digital Census began last week and will end on Friday.

Over 160 000 field workers will be deployed across the country for the 2022 Census.

Census Gauteng Spokesperson Ben Bosch says, “We will conduct the Census from the 3rd to the 28th of February which will be the 4th population count post democracy. Our fieldwork will start on Census night. On this night, we will visit hotels, prisons, hospitals and the homeless to collect data.”

KwaZulu-Natal

In KwaZulu-Natal, Census 2022 will kick off at the Durban beachfront, among other places, where they will be counting the homeless community.

The last Census in 2011 recorded over 10-million KwaZulu-Natal residents.

The country’s first digital census will allow respondents to avoid in-person contact due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Citizens can register online to provide their data digitally and by phone.

The Census was due to be conducted in October 2021, but it was delayed by the pandemic.

The last Census was done in 2011, and everyone in South Africa is being encouraged to participate.

According to the last Census, 40% of households in the province had access to piped water inside a dwelling and 14.1% had no access to piped water.

In the 2011 Census, KwaZulu-Natal had the third highest official unemployment rate in the country at 33 percent.

Limpopo had the highest figure at 38.9%

South African population

Experts say the South African population has been growing at a faster pace than the economy over the past five years.

It has created various socio-economic challenges for policymakers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these challenges, resulting in job losses and larger dependency on government grants.

This week South Africa embarks on yet another census to take stock of the population growth levels, which aid with planning and policymaking.

Stats SA Statistician-General,  Risenga Maluleke says, “The last 4 to 5 years our population has grown by about almost 3.5 million people and I am talking generally in the whole country whereas our economy has been fluctuating  and actually having been hit the most by COVID-19, so the population has continued to grow,  but our economy in real terms has gone back to where it was in 2017.”

“I must admit that population growth is not as sensitive to shocks, we are yet to see the impact of COVID-19, but the economy which we measure quarterly is sensitive to shocks even quarter to quarter, shocks can be internal or external shocks,” Maluleke adds.

VIDEO: Stats SA launched SA Census 2022 last month: