10 Problems Associated with Population Census are listed and explained in this article. We hope you find it helpful and informative.

Problems Associated with Population Census

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Every 10 years, the government of a country often conducts what is called a census, which is the physical counting of the number of persons living in the country at that point in time.

This census is always aimed at providing the basic amenities that the citizens of the nation need. In recent times the population census has faced a lot of challenges, leading to lots of unsuccessful population census exercises.

Problems Associated with Population Census

Some of the challenges which normally comes along with population census in Nigeria as well as many other countries in West Africa are:

1. High level of illiteracy

Because of the increase in the level of illiteracy in a lot of countries that still enroll the development, it has become very difficult to carry out a successful population census as these people do not give relevant and useful statistics which will aid the census. The information which is gathered from these sets of people is usually untrue and misleading.

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2. High cost

For census to be carried out effectively, a lot of financial resources need to be invested into the practice and because of the high level of poverty of some of these African countries, the cost of conducting a good census is quite unaffordable, so they settle for shabby work.

3. Political problem

Due to the fact that population census is used in many countries in order to judiciously allocate resources to states and regions that need them the more, the figures derived from the census are often falsified so as to enable some states to gain more resources than other States to the detriment of the census exercise.

4. Geographical barriers

Because of the landscape of some areas, for example, some areas are swampy, rocky, hilly, filled with mountains, these areas become quite inaccessible and as a result if that, population census becomes rather difficult.

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5. Lack of trained personnel

For census to be carried out, demographers are supposed to head the task but in most African countries, there are fewer demographers, this means that the services of inexperienced and untrained persons are employed just to make the work faster and easier but the end product if it is that the result derived from the exercise is usually inaccurate.

6. Religious beliefs

Religions like Islam forbids women who are in Purdah from being seen by men and as a result, they cannot be counted effectively, they are generally counted by proxy, which also affects the accurate result.

7. Lack of transportation

Due to fact that most villages and even cities do not have good roads, it has always been increasingly difficult for the enumerators to get in touch with those people in some of the communities whose roads are not liable.

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8. Lack of communication facilities

In some areas, the network signal is so bad the communication is made difficult and as a result, proper census activities cannot be carried out. In other places, it is language barriers of refusal to communicate with the enumerators.

9. Poor regional planning

Most towns and villages are not properly planned, as a result, building as scattered anyhow, roads are not well connected and a lot of other regional planning challenges making it difficult for population officers to conduct a good census of the people who live in that region.

10. Tax evasion

Because of the high level of illiteracy in most of these countries, most people presume that population census is a trick by the government so as to know s person’s and at the end of the day, levy them with a high rate of tax. This is why most persons give false information and will not give full cooperation to the officers.

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If all of these problems can be addressed, there sure will be a successful population census within the country and the results will be dependable.