By Tabora Bojang
As the curtain is officially drawn on the 2024 census today, latest data from the Gambia Bureau of Statistics indicated that 84% of households in the Gambia have been enumerated translating to 2,261,724 persons.
Disclosing this at a press conference yesterday, the Statistician General Nyakasi Sanyang added that out of a total of 366,677 structures earmarked during the 2023 mapping exercise, 320,260 have been listed so far corresponding to 87.3 percent of the total structures.
SG Sanyang said there has also been significant progress in the enumeration of households across all regions, above 80 percent.
He said that “Kuntaur, Mansakonko and Basse reported comparatively high enumeration rates with close to 90 percent of houses enumerated. ”In Kerewan and Janjanbureh, 84 percent of the population have been enumerated, while in Banjul, Kanifing and Brikama 83 percent of the population have been enumerated.”
According to him, counting will be completed in most regions by Friday but field workers are working tirelessly to ensure that remaining buildings or structures are accounted for and listed and enumerators who completed their listing and enumeration have been deployed to other areas to ensure timely completion.
“Those who may not finish will resume two days after Eid break,” he disclosed.
Challenges
According to the bureau, enumerators have been experiencing difficulties soliciting compliance from some areas, especially non-Gambian communities. “We are using all possible diplomatic channels to get them to comply but if these channels fail, we will unavoidably use the powers vested on us. We are taking this opportunity to call on everyone in this country to comply as it is mandatory for all to comply and provide accurate data”.
