Census in 2011 after 30 years

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

A countrywide census will be held in Sri Lanka next year after 30 years. The last census was held in 1981. A census was held in 1981 after 20 years covering only 18 districts out of 25, Census and Statistics Department Director H.R Gunasekara said.

Addressing a seminar at the Health Education Bureau yesterday, Gunasekara said the very first census in Sri Lanka was held in 1871.

A census should be conducted once in every 10 years. A census is the only way of gathering complete data on people and property.

It is essential to formulate development strategies at National and Provincial level.

The information collected through a census is legally protected, he said.

According to Gunasekara, 2011 census will be held in three steps - mapping, listing all buildings and counting.

Information will also be collected for the first time on people's communication methods.

Data entry will be done through OMR/ICR scanning and not through keying. E - Census will be introduced to selected rich high class households (around 1,000 houses) in Colombo in order to ensure that they are included in the census.

Residents of such households do not like officials visiting their homes and collecting data. Therefore they will be able to enter their data through Internet using a password, Gunasekara said. Dr Loshan Munasinghe said Sri Lanka's current population is 20.6 million and the number of women in the reproductive age group is 5.6 million (27 percent).

They are between the age of 15 and 49. Only 3.2 million (15 percent) of them are married and have access to family planning services at the moment. Around 220,000 persons add to the total population of Sri Lanka annually and by 2041 the total population of Sri Lanka will be around 24 million.

At that point the population of Sri Lanka will become stable. After that the population will start to a decline, he said.