Pakistan’s First Digital Housing & Population Census to Begin from March  

According to a notification from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the country’s seventh population and housing census will begin on March 1 and go until April.

Digital Data Collection

PBS reported that residents will self-register their family members and home information for the digital housing and population census using simply a registered mobile, per the requirements.

The statistics agency and trained workers will enter data into tablets during the first census ever to be conducted in Pakistan without using paper and pencil.

Furthermore, the computerized door-to-door housing and population census will begin on March 1^st and go through till April 1^st.

Delay in Operations

In an earlier statement, PBS stated that the seventh digital housing and population census had already been delayed for one month due to “unavoidable circumstances.”

According to a statement issued by the Planning Ministry, the seventh census field operation was planned to occur between February 1 and March 4 of 2023.

However, according to the ministry’s announcement, the fifth progress review meeting of the Census Monitoring Committee (CMC) decided to begin the field operation of the census from March 1 to April 1 of 2023 “due to some unanticipated situations and bearing in view the ground realities.”

Training Programs Initiated by PBS

PBS had begun the activities linked to the census and created a plan to train census takers in three stages: in Islamabad for master trainers, in divisions for trainers, and in census districts for enumerators.

The department successfully completed the master trainer training and concurrent trainer training on December 15 and 23, respectively. Three groups of enumerators received training from January 7 to January 21 of this year, with the assistance of the local administration, which played a significant role in the process.

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2017 Census

Pakistan’s first national census in the last 19 years began in 2017, after a delay brought on by a shortage of funding, political wrangling, and insufficient troops to manage security.

The 70-day data collection drive was launched by around 118,000 enumerators in 63 districts, backed by police and troops, as per the Supreme Court’s directive, which had a deadline of this March. Security officers, including 200,000 military members, were on hand to safeguard census teams as well as to guarantee that the families could enter data without feeling threatened.