Dissemination of Census 2012 results

1. Eartha Groenfelt Manager Census Office General Bureau of Statistics Suriname Dissemination of Census 2012 results CARICOM Population and Housing Census Symposium St. George’s, Grenada 27 May 2014

2. OVERVIEW • Dissemination plan • Dissemination achievements • Lessons learned

3. Census Activities 1. Planning and preparation 2. Census cartography 3. Recruitment, training and selection 4. Data processing 5. Analysis and publication/dissemination 6. Publicity 7. Evaluation 8. Documentation

4. Ad 4. Dataprocessing • Manual element of screening and coding of questionnaires • Data entry and editing with the computer • CSPro - specifically developed for data processing through keying - possibility for discovery of data entry errors through main en verification data entry - ideal for data checks during and after data entry (data inconsistencies and other errors) - useful for production of not too complex tables for census output / publications - free software - Data processing personnel experienced

5. Ad 4. Data processing Production of publication tables in CSPro based on the tabulation plan Tabulation plan was mainly based on the publication tables of previous census for ease of comparability for users.

6. Ad 5. Analysis and publication/dissemination • Analysis of basic census data (in terms of accuracy) • Production of preliminary figures • Evaluation of census data through comparison with administrative sources (# births, nationals, gov. employees, # old age pensioners 60+, # hhs with electricity from power company etc.) • Further review of data and tables w.r.t. consistency in numbers, plausibility of figures • Production of final figures in various census publications

7. Dissemination plan Based on • Previous census dissemination speed • requirements for further improvement of speed from from IADB (finances the loan of Census & HBS program) Later adjusted, because of request/demand from Government to increase speed of production even further

8. Dissemination targets were set in the project plan for: Time required for data processing Time required between census taking and data dissemination Access to anonymized micro data online through REDATAM Number of census-related hard copy publications disseminated

9. Project plan Census and HBS program: Dissemination

10. Dissemination targets achieved

11. Targets achieved • Data processing achieved 10 months after census day. (target 10 months) • Data dissemination of all national and sub-national publications achieved 22 months. (target 25 months) • Still to do: - Population projections in June 2014 - Evaluation publication in July 2014 - Data dissemination through Redatam

12. Lessons learned: • Speed of dissemination is highly dependent on the speed with which the census data processing and census database is finalized. • Issue of manpower, capability, drive and tenacity, esp. of data processing staff • For publications: key persons to closely scrutinize the tables for errors that might have occurred during lay-out stages of publication (mixing up sub regional level tables, errors when merging categories and adding up values)

13. Lessons learned: • Small (sub)populations: suppressing or combining categories requires additional time when planning for release of data • Next census round: handheld computers? Because of greater demand for quick results: need for faster data capture and editing; would mean less time spent on processing and quicker production of tables/output.

14. Thank you!