Saoud Al Shammari, Assistant Director of the Department of Censuses, Surveys and Statistical Methods, at PSA PIC: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has praised the cooperation by residents in the ongoing census. The first phase of the census that began in mid-November is proceeding smoothly, said a senior official of PSA.
Saoud Al Shammari, Assistant Director of the Department of Censuses, Surveys and Statistical Methods at PSA, said that the cooperation by citizens and the residents reflects the society’s awareness about the importance of this process.
The process is simple and the meeting between the census worker and the family takes no longer than three minutes. The visits take place in the afternoon from 3:30pm to 7:30pm.
Al Shammari noted that there are 14 different governmental bodies that are cooperating with the authority to complete the project. He added that advanced technology is being used in the process of collecting and verifying data, and only a few countries around the world are using such modern systems.
He said that these systems allow the census worker to send the obtained data immediately to the database, with no other party able to view it, including the census worker himself. He also said that the workers have received intensive training to use these advanced systems.
During the first phase of Qatar 2020 census, the data of buildings, facilities, and residential units will be collected. It will also include data on the number of families and the size of the family.
The phase one gives people the option to receive a census worker or to fill information online. Phase one also helps the census worker complete the data they already have available from the administrative records.
Al Shammari said that these data are important indicators for policymakers. Data on housing and facilities, for example, reflect the prosperity of a society. Other data collected during the census also make a contribution to enhancing the status of a country internationally, in areas such as the Global Competitiveness Report and other similar reports.
The Assistant Director of the Department of Census called on citizens and residents to cooperate more in the remaining days of phase one, and in the second phase which begins in March.
