Nguyen Bich Lam, director general of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam talks to VNA about the upcoming national population and housing census on April 1st.

What is the scope and significance of the 2019 Việt Nam population and housing census?

The 2019 population and housing census will be the biggest one yet. Việt Nam conducts its population and housing census every ten years, and this is the 8th census which will be conducted by the General Statistic Office of Việt Nam.

All the information which will be collected is of great significance to the country. It will tell us how the country’s socio-economic plans have been implemented during the decade (2011-20). And what’s more important, it will serve as the foundation for us to develop the national strategy and socio-economic plan for the period 2021-2030.

Furthermore, the census’ result will serve as a foundation for us to evaluate the implementation of the Resolution of the 12th tenure of the Party Central Committee on the task of population work in the new situation and to monitor all development targets on sustainable development to which the Vietnamese Government has committed. In addition, all the data collected in this census will be used to develop a national integrated database on the country’s population. The database will be a very important tool for other purposes, including the country’s population general statistics and other activities in national statistics activities by 2029.

What will be the focus of this year’s census?

This year’s national census will collect the info on two groups – general statistics and sample statistics. Questionnaires used for general statistics will have 22 questions, including questions on basic population information and household information. Compared with the previous census, the sets of questions this year are more complicated. The sampling will be based on more than 15 percent of the population nationwide, with 65 questions. However, in this year questionnaire we also have some questions reserved for girls aged from 10-14 and women aged from 15-49.

In 2019’s General Statistics, we use both the traditional questionnaire paper and electronic devices.

People engaged in this year’s general statistics will include both those residing in the country and abroad.

What challenges do you think we’ll face in this year’s census?

This year’s census is slightly different from those in the past. This year’s census is the first time we are using electronic devices to collect information. This is a big challenge for us as the data we have to collect covers 94 million people of some 26 million households. Furthermore, many people live in remote islands and mountainous regions. We will have to mobilise more than 100,000 people to carry out this general census.

As I have mentioned above, in this general census, most of the stages will use electronic devices, including information collection and analysis and some others.

How has the preparation been done so far?

To prepare for the general census, we have formed a central steering committee with 15 members which is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ. Meanwhile, in each province/city, a provincial steering committee is established in all 63 provinces and cities nationwide. Of course, in each district/commune we have also established a steering committee.

For this year’s national census, we have developed detailed co-ordination and co-operation of concerned agencies and organisations.

According to the plan, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, National Defence and Public Security will conduct their own general census.

By now all preparations have been on the right track. According to the plan, the general census will start at midnight on April 1, 2019 and be completed on April 25 at the latest.

Initial results of the census are expected to be released in July 2019 and the final results will be made public in the second quarter of 2020. — VNS