Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
JAMAICANS will know by the end of August, the size of the island's population which many have long speculated to be more than three million.
The census-taking exercise which began in mid-2001 has been completed, but the Statis-tical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) said even if persons were not visited by a census taker, it does not mean they were not counted.
STATIN's Director of Cen-suses, Demographic and Social Statistics, Valerie Nam, said individuals in urban centres were hard to find, but the department used all avenues opened to it to make sure people were counted.
"The exercise has been completed. And yes, persons have called to say they were not done. But, we used all available resources to make sure that all homes and individuals were counted," she said last week.
According to her, where it was found that individuals were not interviewed, the information was taken via the telephone, where (they) individuals called to give details. In several instances where individuals were not done, it was found that census takers were chased away from the residences.
Mrs. Nam said, however, that there were genuine cases where census takers and residents were unable to meet. Asked if that will affect the estimate, she said, "the exercise started with the knowledge that everyone would not be counted.
"We know we will not be covering everybody, so we used the post-enumeration check which is a scientific way of measuring our coverage."
She said the process involved STATIN taking a sample of all the households in an area, asking a few questions, the main one being, "were you done in the census?" According to her, "Those who said yes, we tried to find their name in the census and match it. On that basis, we are able to estimate the coverage."
She said, if 20 persons were identified, it did not mean that a questionnaire was completed in every instance, but the information was nonetheless recorded.
The post-enumeration check indicates the number of persons done in an area, and the percentage of the area that was done. She said, if 10 persons questioned equalled 80 per cent of an area, adjustments were done to determine what number would be equivalent to 100 per cent.
She said the scientific process is a reliable one.
Asked if the population has increased significantly, she said, "Based on the 1991 count, at the end of 2001, we estimated that we were at 2.6 million."
Some of the components used to determine that figure were births, deaths and migration records. While birth registration was in the high 90s, cases of violent deaths, many of which are in the Coroner's Courts for years, affected the count. Migration records were deemed unreliable, as visas issued did not indicate where individuals were.
She said the scanning process to record data is still under way, since it started in December last year. However, the promised June deadline for preliminary results will not be met.
"I don't think we will be able to meet that deadline before early August," she said, adding that "The other details which come from the questionnaire will be available by December."
The exercise had been dogged by several problems including violence in several communities. St. Andrew was cited as the parish which gave most problems. The parish, according to STATIN, had the widest mix of socio-economic groups. The last census was done in 1991 at which time the population stood at 2,314,479.
