Over 99 per cent of listed households have been enumerated as part of the fifth national population and housing census, Venant Habarugira, Director of Censuses Department at the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) told The New Times.

Data collection phase, which concludes the entire course of the census, is expected to end by August 30 and according to Habarugira, enumerators are left with enumerating members of households who gave them appointments on the aforementioned date.

He said some of them had travelled outside the country for different reasons while others who live in cities had not yet been found in their homes during daytime.

The enumerators, he continued, expanded their working hours to 9p.m so that they would be able to enumerate them.

According to Habarugira, enumerators faced a few cases of people refusing to be enumerated due to different reasons.

"Since we had two-week period of data collection, there are those we recognised during the first days and went back to them with better explanations on the whys of the census and the questions we ask. Some agreed to be enumerated. We are waiting for the census to end so that we can know the actual number of people who refused to answer completely,” he said.

All in all, he recognises that the awareness campaign for the census was successful with support from local government which saw people attending to the census and providing required information.

Enumerating ‘exceptional’ population

Habarugira noted that to enumerate ‘homeless people’ who are not part of any households required enumerators to dedicate one or two days for them to avoid counting them more than once.

"We worked with local governments to know where they reside and enumerated them,” he said, adding that they worked with Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) to enumerate soldiers who are in military barracks; Rwanda National Police (RNP) to enumerate police officers who live in police barracks; Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) to enumerate inmates as well as the Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA) to enumerate refugees who are currently in Rwanda.

However, according to Habarugira, soldiers, police officers and inmates who have families are enumerated through their households.

The national population and housing census which kicked off on August 16 will update the demographic, social, economic and cultural characteristics of the population of Rwanda; the level, structure and trends of fertility, mortality and migration; and indicators for particular groups of the population such as female, children, youth, elders, and disabled persons.

Characteristics of households, housing conditions and household welfare in Rwanda as well as an elaborate non-monetary poverty mapping of the country will also be the end result.

The last census which was conducted in 2012 put the population at 10.5 million.