The night of August 15 leading to August 16 is census night and all questions to be asked by enumerators during the fifth Rwanda Population and Housing Census will be will be based on this night. The census night is the night preceding the first day of the main census which is Tuesday August 16. The census, which will be carried out by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) is set to end on August 30, after covering all households in the country. The institution urges Rwandans to take note of family members who will spend the census night at their homes, those who will spend it away as well as the guests who will stay at their homes during the night. NISR wishes it could enumerate every Rwanda resident on the census night but because it is not possible, all the information that will be collected throughout the census will be based on the night. What information will be collected? The census questions that will be put to all households fall in four main categories: household location, characteristics of each household member, health as well as housing and farming activities. Questions on household physical location will reflect province, district, sector, cell, and village. Questions that will be asked for each household member and visitors will be related to marital status for household members aged 12 and above; disability for household members aged 5 and above; parents’ survival to be asked to household members aged below 18; identity document to be asked to all household members aged 18 and above; education for all household members; literacy for household members aged 10 and above; questions related to language, internet use, and ownership of telephone as well as those related to occupation to be asked to household members aged 16 and above. On the health part, questions that will be asked are related to fatalities that occurred in 12 months preceding the census night and those related to fertility for female household members aged 10 and above. Regarding housing and farming, the questions that will be asked are related to materials that make the walls, pavement, and ceiling, number of rooms, durable materials owned by the household, hygiene and sanitation, and questions related to farming. The outcomes will help the country in planning, according to NISR. What about Rwandans living in diaspora? In a video shared on different Twitter accounts of Rwandan embassies, Yusuf Murangwa, Director General of NISR reveals that the census is important for the country to plan for both Rwandans living in the country and those living in the diaspora. He declares that Rwandans living in the diaspora will mainly answer questions regarding their identity, age and level of education. He adds: “For those who will be in Rwanda during the census period, they will be considered as visitors in Rwanda but we encourage them to use the web application for Rwandans living in the diaspora. The Key dates are from 16th of August to 15th of September. However, for Rwandans living in the diaspora, the 15th of August census night is not relevant to them. We call upon all Rwandans living in the diaspora to be counted for the census because they count.” The census night is preceded by the listing phase that happened from August 10 to 14. Over 20,000 enumerators conducted an exercise to assign code numbers to households countrywide.
