Sierra Leone completes 'successful' post-Ebola census

Freetown (AFP) - Sierra Leone praised its resilient population of six million on Monday for cooperating in an "exceptionally successful" nationwide census seen as a benchmark of the country's post-Ebola recovery.

Almost 13,000 surveyors fanned out across the country for two weeks up to Friday, collecting a slew of data on population demographics, housing provision, agriculture and the impact of the deadly virus.

"The census was exceptionally successful as people readily gave details to our enumerators," Sullay Kamara, the director-general of the government's statistics council, told AFP.

"When one thinks that the census came barely a month after Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free... and many people were at the point of rebuilding their lives after the death of loved ones, we had no case of people being rude to our enumerators."

The count is seen as a key test of Sierra Leone's recovery from an epidemic that killed almost 4,000 people before the west African nation was declared free of transmission last month.

The $10.5 million survey was postponed twice because of the outbreak but finally set in stone several months ago, as the country was still fighting Ebola.

"People look at the census with hope that their living conditions will improve and that more development -- in terms of health, education and basic social life -- will improve after the devastating destruction caused by Ebola," Kamara said.

The statistics council says provisional results are expected in March, while a final report will not be available until the end of 2016.

The 2004 count put the population at 4.9 million but this is expected to rise to 6.5 million.