SCI Predicts $24m Price Tag for Next Traditional Census

EghtesadOnline: A traditional Population and Housing Census in 2021-22, held with numerous enumerators collecting field data would cost an estimated 4,200 billion rials ($24.27 million), whereas the register-based approach could significantly reduce the cost of census, Javad Hosseinzadeh, the head of the Statistical Center of Iran, said.

News ID: ۷۵۰۱۲۷

31 May 2020

On May 13, the Iranian Cabinet approved the formation of the National Headquarters of Register-Based Population and Housing Census scheduled for 2026-27.

The head of Plan and Budget Organization will be in charge of this new executive body, SCI reported.

Registered-based census is a method of compiling data on population, households and dwellings by the statistical linking of administrative and statistical data sources without using fieldwork. A lot of information on population, households and dwellings is collected and compiled in various registers, files and databases. These data will be linked together so people won’t be asked the same questions again.

As per the Cabinet decision, all ministries and government organizations and institutions as well as Islamic Republic foundations and non-governmental public organizations are required to collaborate with the statistical center when it comes to providing data and information.

The latest national census began nationwide on Sept. 24, 2016, and ended on Nov. 18 of the same year in two phases of online and door-to-door registration. It put Iran's population at over 79.92 million—about 4.77 million more compared to the previous figure registered by the census conducted in the fiscal 2011-12.

Based on the census findings, among all Iranian provinces, Hamedan and North Khorasan recorded negative population growths compared to the previous round of census.

The two provinces filed a population growth of minus 0.23% and minus 0.11% respectively.

South Khorasan (3.02%), Hormozgan (2.30%) and Alborz (2.37%) top the list of provinces with the highest population growth rates, IRNA reported.

"Out of the total 79,926,270 Iranians or 24,196,035 households, 59,146,847 or 18,125,488 households live in urban areas and 20,730,625 people or 6,070,547 households live in rural areas. The urban population shows an increase of 5,500,186 and the rural population indicates a decline of 772,383 compared with the 2011-12 national census," Omid Ali Parsa, the former head of Statistical Center of Iran, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

The census put the number of men at 40,498,442 and the number of women at 39,427,828, meaning the sex ratio stands at 103:100. The previous census put the ratio at 102:100.

Parsa noted that the number of households in urban and rural areas increased by 2,697,640 and 312.748 over the same period of the previous year respectively.