22 August 2007
Maputo — Raw data released in Maputo, on Tuesday, of the Third General Population and Housing Census show that currently Mozambique has a population of 20,069,738 people, including both nationals and foreigners, against an initial projection of 20,366,910 from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The census took place between 1 and 15 August 2007, and this figure represents a coverage of 98.5 per cent.
According to the Census Central Office (GCR) director, Joao Loureiro, these figures will be subject to some changes because there are a number of census bulletins yet to be collected.
"There are provinces with communications problems", said Loureiro, explaining that the figures released on Tuesday will be confirmed by a survey to begin on September 15, an exercise that envisages to assess the level of coverage of the census.
Loureiro, who was speaking during a press conference, said that the census involved 47,768 census takers, 16,625 controllers and 1,946 census offices, and the total cost was just over 293.4 million meticais (about 11.5 million USD), a sum that was covered by the government itself, and by a wide range of donors, who include the European Union, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and Sweden.
With 7.6 million citizens, the northern provinces of Nampula and Zambezia are the most populated areas in Mozambique.
While Nampula recorded 3,888,356 people, against an initial projection of 3,861,347, Zambezia registered 3,792,000 people against the projected figure of 3,880,184 people.
On the other hand, the Mozambican capital Maputo has registered 1,087,692 people against an initial projection of 1,271,569.
As for the capital, Loureiro admits the hypothesis that it may have lost a significant number of its population in favour of Maputo province over the last 10 years.
Just after the 2000 floods, a significant number of Maputo city residents were resettled in the surrounding districts, in the Maputo province.
"These are mere hypothesis, as the phenomenon will be explained by analyzing the indicators concerning migration", said Loureiro, dismissing the possibility that there could be lower coverage rate in the capital.
Also, Loureiro said current data show an increase in population numbers in some areas of the country, particularly where in the last few years new economic and industrial units were established.
The Census Central Office cautions that these are just raw data and that preliminary results will be released in November, and the final figures will come out by November 2009.
Now the Census Central Office is collecting all the census bulletins, an operation that is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
In general terms, Loureiro describes the whole process as positive, despite some obstacles, reported during its course, such as lack of material and mapping problems, which were promptly solved.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
