As part of the preparation for the 4th National Census for Population and Housing, the Ministry of Planning's Central Department of Statistics and Information is to launch Friday, March 12, a massive field operation to number residential buildings and commercial establishments into different blocks and districts. Abdullatif I. Al-Khamees, supervisor and head of the Media Center for the 4th National Census for Population and Housing, said field inspectors would undergo a week-long training program on the numbering procedures that facilitate the enumerators easy access for data collection. “We urge residents, both Saudis and expatriates, to cooperate with the visiting field inspectors. As a precursor to the national census operation, the inspectors will ask only two questions – the number of occupants in the house and their nationality,” Al-Khamees said. He said after the process of numbering is finished the field inspectors will decide on the number of enumerators required to be deployed in each area for the final census operation that starts April 28. Similarly, the recruitment of women as data collectors will depend on the feedback from field inspectors as to the number and areas of their deployment, he said. Abdullah Al-Batil, in charge of the data processing unit in the Ministry of Planning, said an unspecified number of women will be recruited to work as data collectors. Al-Batil said women data collectors would be recruited for places that have women-only sections such as hospitals, schools and banks among other areas. The recruitment of women will be for a period of one month and will start by the end of this month, he said. “Women data collectors will not be deployed in the field; they will only visit those places that have women-only staff,” he said. A one-week training program will be given to the short-listed women candidates, who will be paid SR200 per day, he said. The women workers will include both Saudis and non-Saudis and they will be trained on how to fill out the 59-point questionnaire in an accurate manner, he added. Saudi Arabia is conducting the 4th National Census for Population and Housing together with other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The entire census operation in the Kingdom will be completed in a two-week period ending on May 12. Saudi Arabia conducted its first official census in 1974 when the Kingdom's population was 7,009,466 people of whom Saudis were 6,218,361. The second census in 1992 showed that the total population stood at 16,948,388 including 12,310,053 Saudis while the third census organized in 2004 showed that the total population had reached 22,678,262 people of which the number of Saudis stood at 16,527,340.
