Provisional Census Figures Subject To Change - Govt Statistician

The provisional results of the 2010 Population and Housing Census released last Thursday are subject to change in the final results expected to be released in March, 2012, the Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, has explained.

She, therefore, urged the public to treat the provisional results as such until the final figures, giving full details of all the demographic characteristics, were released.

Dr Bediako told journalists at a news conference in Accra Thursday, that it was expedient to release provisional results of the census because that would minimise variations in demographic characteristics in the final results.

She said in the 2000 Population and Housing Census, the margin of change between the provisional and final results of the total population was about 500,000.

She said the more detail results were released, the closer they would be to the final results and that would not be a good approach.

Dr Bediako said it was not expedient, for instance, to release figures on the districts now in view of the boundary disputes that characterised some of the districts during the census.

She said the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) was collaborating with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to find means of resolving the disputes before the release of the final results in March, 2012.

Dr Bediako said the release of the provisional results was to allow policy makers, businesses and other interested bodies to know the population trend and react to it appropriately.

On concerns by some people that they were not counted in the exercise, she said the number of such people was not significant enough to impact on the final results.