Sharjah: Starting tomorrow, October 20, officials will start visiting residences in Sharjah to collect data from families and individuals for the biggest-ever five-month census.
The Department of Statistics and Community Development (DSCD) has announced phase one of the Sharjah Census 2022. As part of the listing phase that commences on Thursday, 300 trained field personnel will visit all buildings, facilities, and housing to collect initial data in person.
Questions for residents
DSCD enumerators will be actively involved in the comprehensive listing phase, which concludes on November 20. During this period, they will collect data on the nationality of the family head, number of family members as well as age, academic and vocational qualification of each member, contact information, and contact language to ensure they receive the self-counting form in a language they speak.
Buildings, facilities, and housing
Field personnel will be collecting data on buildings, including name, type, number of storeys, entrances, and occupancy, whether it is a residential or commercial building. Information about housing will include number, characteristics, function, status and number of rooms, while facility data will feature name, type, activity, number of workers and employees and their nationalities.
Data confidentiality
The department has called on nationals and residents of the emirate to cooperate with the census teams by providing correct data, which, in line with the existing laws, will remain confidential and not be published or shared with anyone. DSCD pointed out that field personnel will carry an ID tag and wear a special vest sporting the logos of DSCD and Sharjah Census 2022.
Following the completion of the listing phase, the self-counting stage will commence, where all nationals and residents of the emirate will have to fill out the census forms.
Field personnel workshops
To ensure the accuracy and quality of the data collection process, DSCD recently organised a three-day workshop for the 300 enumerators on ways to deal with the public during the comprehensive listing phase and how to use the department’s applications and digital tablets connected to a secure platform to enable them to complete their work efficiently and in a secure manner.
Public interest
Abdullah Al Kadeed, director of the Statistics Department at DSCD, said: “The comprehensive listing phase is the most critical and important period in the census, as it translates our experience in overcoming the challenges we faced previously. Sharjah is home to expats from 180 nationalities, and some people do not speak either English or Arabic or do not use social media in these two languages. This is why we need to reach out to them, raise their awareness of the census and stress that their participation is beneficial. We need to transcend the language barrier and send them the self-counting form in a language they speak.”
He added: “We call on all nationals and residents, families and individuals alike, SMEs, and private sector companies in the emirate to cooperate with the census teams, as it benefits everyone and contributes to advancing the development of the emirate’s services. It provides relevant entities with accurate data and comprehensive information to formulate developmental plans and strategies to support all segments of the community in the emirate. Every piece of information provided to the census teams contributes to serving the community, whose members are an integral part of Sharjah’s comprehensive developmental plan.”
The latest Sharjah Census was launched under the theme ‘You Count’ in September. Preliminary results will be presented to the Ruler of Sharjah and key government entities in March 2023. The findings will also be accessible to the public via the Sharjah Government website and open data platforms.
