Statistics and Census Bureau (DESC) Director Kong Pek Fong said Wednesday in order to ensure that the 2016 population by-census won’t run into hitches her bureau plans to carry out a trial run in 2015.
She also said the contents of the questionnaires for the trial run would be confirmed by the end of year.
Kong made the remarks on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the bureau at the Macau Science Centre.
The one-day seminar titled “Application of Statistics and Scientific Decision Making” drew several dozen participants.
Talking to reporters, Kong said that the 2016 by-census will be one of the bureau’s most important projects.
She said that the findings of the 2016 by-census will show the changes in Macau’s population structure, such as gender, age and job segments, since the 2011 population census.
“We’ll carry out the trial run next year…we have set up a working group, which comprises members from different bureaus and now it is working at several things such as deciding on the questions. We hope the contents of the
questionnaires will be confirmed by the end of the year,” she said, adding themain aim of the trial run was to test the feasibility of the questionnaire.
She also said the test run would possibly cover several thousand households and DESC staff would be equipped with electronic devices so that the data collected can be processed quickly and better protected.
Talking to reporters, Kong also said that the bureau collects data about local residents’ participation in the city’s cultural activities once a year
Macau’s estimated population – including residents and imported labour – stood at 624,000 at the end of June, according to DSEC data. (macaunews/macaupost)
