Best Census Products Ever "The products of the census mark a radical departure in two ways," says Dr Mark Orkin, Head of Statistics South Africa (previously CSS). "Firstly, there are some free publications. We are giving the basic census results back to the people of South Africa without charge." "Then there are some new electronic products, on CD-Rom with blindingly fast tabulation software, that provide unprecedented flexibility for professional users of census data," Orkin continues. "They will be able to run the huge census databases, embedded in a GIS, on a Pentium PC, and produce their own tables, graphs and analytic maps in seconds." The release date for the databases with GIS is targeted for February. "The like of these packages have never been seen in South Africa. The UK and the US censuses will only get there in five years. You can say this is the African Renaissance in census statistics," Orkin says. "There are also the general users. We want people to be able to access our statistics, to provide them with a sound basis for informed decision-making," Dr Ros Hirschowitz, Chief Director: Research and Development at Stats SA, emphasises. Stats SA deposits its products in state and other libraries, and places key releases on the Stats SA website, where they can be accessed at no charge by Internet users. Mr Pali Lehohla, Chief Director: Demography at Stats SA, says: "We want to return the results to the population of South Africa to thank everybody for their enthusiastic support of Census ’96. These statistics belong to the nation. Some of our primary "give back" products are the Census in Brief, and The Count and How it was done, that gives a snapshot of the lives of South Africans." Free census products are available from User’s Enquiries at telephone number (012) 310-8600 or fax (012) 310-8500 and on the Stats SA website: http://www.statssa.gov.za. |