Author/Authors :
Nair, Prema Letha Federal Government Administrative Centre - Department of Statistics Malaysia, Population and Demographic Statistics Division, Malaysia
Abstract :
The Population and Housing Census remains vital as the main source of datacollection aimed at providing a comprehensive set of statistical information about thepopulation in the country in terms of its size and spatial distribution, its demographic,social and economic characteristics as well as housing stock at a specific time reference.The census provides essential information for policy development and planning, formanaging and evaluating programmes activities across a broad spectrum of sectors andfor monitoring overall progress. The Census being a total coverage and complete countof the population, household and living quarters at a given time enables to provide for awide scope of enquiry even to the extent to meet the demand for data on small areasstatistics. The United Nations Statistical Commission launched the current 2010 WorldPopulation and Housing Census Programme covering a 10 year period from 2005-2014.It urges member states to carry a population and housing at least once over the abovesaid period. Malaysia, launched the fifth decennial Population and Housing Census inJuly 2010 which provides a wealth of information on the population and household withdemographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as housing stock. The 2010Census round witnessed increased interest and use of improved technologies and newapproaches in the different phases of the census operation. The emerging improvedtechnologies are transforming the way the Census are conducted in terms of operationmanagement, quality assurance, data capture, mapping (GIS, GPS), data processing andstorage. Among the new approaches used during the Census are the use of internetbased questionnaire for data collection, alternative publicity strategies beingimplemented and the web-based data dissemination. Even small improvements incensus technology can result in important gains in the quality and cost-effectiveness ofthe whole census operation and still maintain the confidentiality of data. This paperoutlines how the Department of Statistics Malaysia adopted new approaches andtechnologies during the 2010 Census. Highlights will also be given on the impact of thenew technologies in the implementation of Census and the way forwardness.