National Population Census - Final Results announced Stats SA today announced the results of Census ’96, indicating that the population of the country is 40,58 million. At a launch attended by 200 people, Stats SA presented to President Mandela the results of this most comprehensive nation-wide count. The census provides a wealth of information that will impact significantly on the planning of a better life for all South Africans. For the first time in a quarter of a century, the census reached out to South Africans in every part of the country. Stats SA is confident that South Africa now has accurate figures concerning the composition of its population. The Statistics Council, an independent statutory body constituted of experts and community representatives, which is responsible for overseeing the quality of statistics in the country and the census in particular, recommended to the Minister of Finance that the results of Census ’96 be officially adopted. The census project began in October 1996, when a hundred thousand enumerators fanned out across the cities, towns, townships, informal settlements, villages, farms and rural areas of our country to record the details of people living in more than nine million households. Homeless people, hostels, prisons and other institutions were also visited to ensure a comprehensive count. Census ’96 applied a uniform method for the collection of the enormous mass of information. Households were visited and details obtained about all its members from a representative, who was either interviewed, or else filled in the questionnaire, in the language of that person’s choice. The data were entered into computers in the ensuing period, and adjusted for undercount. |