Population Census.. Frihat: Citizens Have the Right Not to Answer Some Questions, While the Law Penalizes Those Who Do Not Cooperate
Al-Taj News – Director General of the Department of Statistics Haidar Frihat said Thursday that the objective of the upcoming population census is to replace estimates based on the 2015 population census with actual figures reflecting the situation on the ground.
He added that the census process is costly, which is why it is conducted every 10 years, after which the population is estimated until another 10 years have passed. He noted that the use of technology in the census reduced the number of enumerators from 20,000 in 2015 to 12,000 in the upcoming census, and also reduced the cost from 30 million dinars to approximately 24 million dinars.
Frihat explained that preparations for the population census continued for two years, beginning with an office-based phase to update data, followed by updating the “statistical blocks,” which are enumeration areas.
He pointed out that the number of “enumeration” areas reached 24,000 statistical blocks in Jordan, each representing between 50 and 150 buildings. In the final phase, buildings were inventoried to determine the nature of each building, whether residential or non-residential, and the number of apartments in each building. He explained that the number of buildings in Jordan is approximately 1.05 million.
Frihat said that, in previous stages, the Department of Statistics asked residents whether they wished to receive a statistics employee or have the census conducted by themselves under certain conditions.
He explained that those who expressed a desire to conduct the census themselves without a statistics employee would be sent a link through the Sanad application or via phone number, noting that approximately 20% of the population chose the self-enumeration method.
Frihat revealed that the number of enumerators who will conduct the population census is 12,000, including 10,000 school teachers from the Ministry of Education, 700 employees of the Department of Statistics, and 1,300 temporary workers at the Department of Statistics.
