HÀ NỘI — The 2019 national population and housing census should be conducted quickly, accurately, economically and effectively.

The order was issued by Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ, head of the 2019 national population and housing census’ steering committee, at a meeting held on Monday afternoon in Hà Nội.

The 2019 census is scheduled to be held between April 1 and April 25, 2019 under decision No 772/QĐ-TTg, signed by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc in June, 2018.

The content of the census includes general information on population, immigration, education and professional qualifications, marital status, disability status, fertility, mortality, the situation of labour and employment, and basic living conditions of households nationwide.

The census, taken every ten years, aims to help research the population growth and development of housing across the country over the last decade.

According to Huệ, the 2019 census will play an important role in assessing the implementation of national socio-economic development plans in 2016-20 as well as building future plans for the next period of 2021-25.

Huệ stressed that although it was a periodical census, it will receive significant attention from the Government and National Assembly.

It is expected to provide a panorama of the quality of both population and housing for the Government and National Assembly so that the agencies could make suitable policies to synchronise population growth with the country’s sustainable development, he said.

Huệ assigned ministries, sectors and localities to work together in conducting the census so that it could provide the most accurate statistics.

The more accurate the statistics generated, the more appropriate the policies will be, he said.

Huệ also asked relevant ministries and sectors to apply information technology in conducting the census to achieve the best results.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Information and Communications was told to boost dissemination of the census so that people from all walks of life would actively co-operate with authorised agencies when the census is conducted, he said.

Innovation

Speaking at the meeting, deputy head of the General Statistics Office under the Ministry of Investment and Planning Phạm Quang Vinh, said the method to collect information would take three forms – a computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), webform and preprinted form.

This approach is thought to be one of the breakthroughs for the 2019 census compared to previous versions, he added.

“It is the first time the office has applied the CAPI and web form models in conducting a national-scale statistical survey,” he said.

Vinh said it would cost over VNĐ1.5 trillion (US$65.1 million) to conduct the 2019 census, tripling the amount for the 2009 census.

The higher cost was because of the larger population, the building of adequate information infrastructure, and the higher expense paid for staff participating in the 2019 census, he said.

As planned, the 2019 census’s initial results will be announced in July 2019 and the final results will be published in the second quarter of 2020. Thematic analyses will be released in the fourth quarter of 2020. —VNS