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The total process of collecting, collating, compiling, evaluating, analyzing, and publishing or otherwise disseminating demographic, economic, and social data at the smallest geographical level appropriate pertaining, at a specified time, to all persons and housing in a country or in a well-delimited part of a country.

Answer: The last census in Nigeria was conducted in 2006 and prior to that was in the year 1991.

The process of interviewing each member of a given household in a population and collecting socio-demographics and other information about each person.

A census, as distinguished from a survey, is intended to be a complete count of the population. While a scientifically designed and conducted survey covers a representative sample of the population, and the results are generalizable to the whole population.

The Population and Housing Census is of great importance for development planning, revenue distribution, and political constituency delineation. It helps in knowing the size, spread, and composition of a population. For instance, it provides information on age which helps determine the number of taxable adults, also data on economic characteristics which helps determine the number of unemployed citizens, and in making economic policies. Data on spread help know who is where and to estimate the number of emigrants and immigrants.

The methodology the Commission intends to adopt for the conduct of the next population and housing census is de facto with the use of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) an electronic data collection device.

EA are carved out from each locality to guide in distributing fieldenumerators and materials to ensure complete coverage of the locality and to ensure no area is left out uncounted or any area counted twice. The digital EA maps to be used have details of residential, nonresidential, and institutional buildings which can guide the enumerators to count the locality accurately.

No, we only take data of the animal as household possessions for record purposes and as part of the population figure.

The United Nations (UN) recommends that the Census be conducted periodically, every 5 years, or 10 years depending on the resources of the country and political will.

The next PHC is scheduled to be conducted in April 2023.

The scheduled date for the PHC exercise will be well publicized through nationwide announcements, and advertisements in both print and electronic media, including local and national Newspapers and the radio/television. Apart from this, the Census enumerators will be visiting your house in person. They will assign numbers to your house and affix small Census stickers on the doorway of houses in which the Census has been completed. These will indicate that they have commenced operations in your area.

There is a comptroller to administer every local government area and that
are resident officers in each LGA designated. For any information or complaints, you can contact the comptrollers in your LGA headquarters. A
help desk also will be opened in every LGA headquarters to respond to
questions and complaints.

National Population Commission will make the census questionnaire and other materials available in multiple languages. The questionnaire will be available in the major languages of Nigeria including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and pidgin on the tablets of each enumerator.

The census is for a person resident in Nigeria and that is present, even for a day at the time of enumeration. If a person is a resident of some other country and is present in Nigeria throughout the enumeration period, she/he will be enumerated. However, persons who are not residents of Nigeria and would not stay in Nigeria even for a day during the enumeration period will not be enumerated.

To ensure that there will be no double counting, the commission has instructed the enumerators to apply indelible ink on the left thumb of the respondent. Every enumerator must check the left thumb for the presence of
indelible ink.

Everyone present in Nigeria at the time of enumeration will be counted.

Yes, there is background information on the hard-to-reach/count population gathered during enumeration area demarcation. The groups were identified and mapped; therefore, census planners already know where these categories of the population are located, particularly the internally displaced persons(IDPs). This group, which is called the special population, includes Homeless Persons, Homeless Households, Nomads, Transient Populations, and Fishing and hunting Populations. Again, Women in Purdah, Foreigners within the country, and inmates in places like correctional centers, mental homes, hospitals, barracks (field camps), etc. are also considered a special population. Since entry into these places may present security and other problems, the heads of these institutions are usually called upon for permission to enumerate their occupants (that is persons in their care). In some cases, these places provide their own staff that will assist enumerators in approaching the occupants for the purpose of enumeration.


The commission expects to hire up to 1,500,000 Adhoc field functionaries for
the census enumeration, scheduled to hold in April 2023. Enumerators will go
door-to-door, collecting information from individual persons found in each
household and institution. Adhoc roles available in the field include the
enumerator, supervisor, and field coordinator.

According to the criteria set for screening, “Recent high school graduates,
veterans, retirees, military spouses, seasonal workers,” and people who are
Bilinguals are “highly encouraged to apply.” Others are welcome, too.
Importantly, people will be hired in their respective community/LGA in order
to have complete coverage. With fewer logistics burdens.

To qualify for temporary census employment, a person must be at least age
18, generally must be a Nigerian citizen, must be proficient in English and
any Nigerian language must have a valid email address and must complete
an online application that will include a set of assessment questions. For
some positions, the applicant may require additional qualifications, all of
which will be advertised.

Every census functionary will have an identification badge (ID) that shows
their name, photograph, expiration date for the ID, and a National
Population Commission reflective jacket as an identity.

All individual information collected under the Census is confidential and
will not be shared with any person or agency be it Government or private.

In case you are in doubt, ask the Enumerator to read out your response to
you in order to ascertain that the details are correctly entered.

The enumerator will take down all particulars as given by you. However, you
may be required to show some documents like a birth certificate if available
for clarity of information. But generally, it is expected that you will provide correct and authentic information. You are also signing to this effect. The provision of false information can invite penalties under the Census Act.

No. This is because the census process is De-facto. You have to be seen to
be enumerated.

It is mandatory to answer all Census questions because the National
Population Commission is empowered by law to carry out the Population and
Housing Census and it is punishable under the law to refuse to answer any
question.

Siamese twins or persons with one body and two heads will be treated as disabled in movement. In case they also suffer from any other disability,
they will be considered to have multiple disabilities and appropriate codes
will be recorded.

Only 30% of vision is blocked if one eye is lost. This does not qualify a person to be considered disabled in Seeing, but they will be considered as having a little difficulty in seeing.

Generally, it is believed that deaf persons also cannot speak. However,
people acquire hearing disabilities on account of accidents and /or old age.
Therefore, Disabilities in Speech and Disability in hearing have been categorized as separate disabilities for the census purpose.