SPC_KIR_2010_PHC_v01_M

Population and Housing Census 2010

Population and Housing Census [hh/popcen]

Kiribati has been carrying out population and housing censuses in a "modern sense" at intervals of about five years since 1985. This population census is the fifth in its series conducted by the Kiribati National Statistics Office though first censuses took place during the 1930's.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) strives and continues to support government by providing socio-economic statistics for monitoring and evaluation purposes through population censuses. These socio-economic statistics are also made available to other users such as the businesses, the churches, regional and international organizations. One of the main sources of demographic and social-economic statistics in Kiribati is the population and housing census. Kiribati has been carrying out population and housing censuses in a "modern sense" at intervals of about five years since 1985. This 2010 Census is the first census to use the GPS to plot the positions of the households.

The population census is conducted under the Population Census Ordinance CAP 8.

A population census is a fairly large undertaking involving lots of people and a significant budget. It requires elaborate organization and preparation and this is why it is necessary to start the preparations well in advance of the actual enumeration date, say two years or at least a year. Unfortunately, preparations for this 2010 census started less than a year before the enumeration took place. This is basically because of the late approval of funds and the uncertainty as whether the census would go ahead or not.

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Individuals and Households.

Version 01: Cleaned, labelled and de-identified (not anonymised) version of the Master file.

2012-07-16

INDIVIDUALS: Demographic information about the people
HOUSEHOLDS: Characteristics of the households

National coverage: meaning the whole population, all households and institutions in all the islands in the Gilbert group, the Line islands and the Phoenix group were covered.

The population census enumeration in Kiribati is based on a de-facto basis meaning that people residing only in Kiribati at the time of the census will be counted or enumerated-i.e. those temporary overseas will be excluded.

not applicable

The questionnaire, published in English, is divided into 2 categories as such:
-Household and Housing form: Household characteristics, livestocks, capital goods owned, energy, fishing involvement, sanitation, waste management, cash inflow.
-Persons form: Individual characteristics, education, literacy, physical activity, fertility, narcotic use, economic activity.

Questionnaire design process:
Although the population census questions remain basically the same from census to census there is always a need to review the questionnaire before each census in light of recent developments and changes, and in light of complaints or problems noted in past censuses. For instance, the question on the "internet use" was never asked in the previous censuses because there was no internet or the internet use was very limited in those times, but now the internet is one of the standard household questions because many people are using it. Sometimes it may be necessary to drop off some questions that people are no longer interested in, again to give an example, in the 1990 population 14
census there was a question on the number of ducks and goats, because the agriculture division had brought in some goats in the 1980s to see whether they could be reared here-as it turned out, the goats were becoming more of a nuisance rather than worthwhile household assets, and they were eventually disposed off. The ducks are also on the decline and so the census questionnaires in recent censuses do not incorporate them anymore. Sometimes the questions are reviewed to ensure that the enumerators and the respondents fully understand them. Usually there is a committee or task force set up to review and finalize the questionnaires.
For the 2010 population census project a workshop to review the questionnaire was conducted in August 2010 for three days. The participants include officials from different government ministries and representatives of non-government bodies. The 2005 census questionnaire was used as the initial template and as the basis of the discussion.

To access the full Questionnaire please refer to the external resources of this documentation.

There was a total of 76 supervisors (out of 461 staff) who worked for 3 months on this census.

-Training:
Two trainings were conducted; one for the nine supervisors on the basis of the Supervisor's Manual and the other training was done based on the Enumerator's Manual. Both these trainings were conducted given the time and the availability of the course materials prior to the enumeration dates, on the materials that were provided by the Census Commissioner. For Christmas Island, the training was done on the first week of November, this is the only available time for training and therefore the best and priority focus was given to the data collection questionnaire. No training was done for Tabuaeran and Teraina given that no ship was available during the time, best convenient for the training, therefore the trained staff from Christmas Island were trained also to serve the purpose of this situation.

-Data Collection:
Tabuaeran and Teraina collection started later in December and ended in 19th December 2010, Kanton was completed on February 2011 due to the unavailability of transportation to these islands although they are processed at the same time with the rest. In May 2010 twenty three (23) GPS operators were recruited from S.Tarawa and were given a training on GPS use by a TA from SPC-the training took place at the BTC office for 3 days. The GPS operators plotted the positions of all households in the country and carried out a "fast" count of all the people in each household. This is known as the household listing exercise and provides useful information to the census planners.
Well over 400 people, including 362 enumerators, were involved in the 2010 population census project but most worked for a limited period of time. For instance, the enumerators worked for only two weeks-these are the people who did the actual interviews during the census enumeration period. The supervisors worked for 3 months and the computer operators for about a year. At the end of 2011 all census staff recruited from outside the NSO were laid off-leaving the three „permanent? staff of the NSO to continue the work on the 2010 census project.

-Pilot Census:
In the 2010 population census project, 22 people were recruited to carry out the pilot census. The pilot census was conducted on N. Tarawa (representing the rural areas or outer islands) and on S.Tarawa (urban) with the assistance of two TAs from SPC-for two weeks (18-27 August 2010). Tabiteuea village was selected in N.Tarawa, and for S.Tarawa, Bikenibeu village was selected. The focus of the pilot test was on the contents of the questionnaire and the workload on the enumerators.

The census commissioner went to SPC, in Noumea, in August 2011 to clean up the datafile, do some initial census tabulations, and start some analysis.
Data processing was done using CSPro software.

No access policy exists other than that stipulated in the Statistics Act 96.
Persons wishing to access the data should contact Kiribati National Statistics (KNSO) directly and will be willing to accept the conditions.

1. It shall be the duty of the Government Statistician –
   a) To collect, compile, analyze, abstract and publish statistical information relating to the commercial, industrial, agricultural, social, economic and general activities and condition of the people of Kiribati
   b) To co-ordinate with departments of the Government the collection, compilation, analysis and publication of statistical records of administration; and
   c) Generally to organize a co-ordinated scheme of social and economic statistics relating to Kiribati, in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance.

"National Statistics Office of Kiribati, Population and Housing Census 2010 (PHC 2010), Version 01 of the licensed datasets (July 2012), provided by the Pacific Microdata Library.http://pdl.spc.int/index.php/home"

All documents should be cited publications by KNSO and other publications of this data without the Government Statistician endorsement is not obligated to be official statistics from KNSO.
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

(c)2010 Kiribati National Statistics Office

DDI_SPC_KIR_2010_PHC_v01_M

2012-07-16