Population Census > About the Census > Introduction to the 2002 Census
The Rwanda 2002 Census of Population and Housing
Legal basis
Census questionnaires
Confidentiality
Introduction to the 2002 Census
Censuses in other countries
Principal results
Concepts and explanation
1. Context and Legal Basis
The 3rd General Census of Population and Housing in Rwanda (RGPH), just like the
two others that preceded it in 1978 and 1991, was conceived in response to the need to take
into consideration socio-demographic indicators derived from reliable data that is
representative of the characteristics of the entire population.
This need was the more felt in 2002, in view of the fact that the data from the second
census of 1991, which as we are aware, was conducted under difficult conditions, no
longer portrayed the present reality of population of Rwanda, especially after the
severe disruptive effects of the massacres and genocide of 1994. This particularly different
demographic situation required a reformulation of the national population policy and underlined
the need for a new, more coherent and realistic vision of nation socio-economic development,
that implicitly incorporates the fight against poverty.
In this direction, a detailed knowledge of the social, demographic and economic
characteristics of the population as well as precise information on the availability within
various administrative units of basic social infrastructure such as water, health
services, educational facilities, etc.... constitutes a basic prerequisite for the elaboration
of such a policy and for the efficient implementation of development programmers.
Only a nationwide project like the General Census of Population and Housing can
meet such a variety of needs in terms of demographic and socio-economic data.
The 2002 census was instituted by the Presidential Decree N° 43/01 of the 29/12/1999
later modified by the Presidential Decree N° 28/01 of the 10/11/2000 relating to the
organization of the 3`d General Census of Population and Housing. This Decree clearly specifies,
among other things, the various institutions to be involved in the conduct of the census, the obligations
on the part of the general public towards the census staff when they visit, as well as the responsibilities
of such staff, particularly with regard to the secrecy of statistical information.
The organization of statistical activities in Rwanda is regulated by the Decree-Law N°
18/77 of the 26/07/1977 which also constitutes a basic reference legal tool for the
organization and the conduct of this census.
2. The Objectives of the 3rd General Census of Population and Housing
One of the objectives of the 3rd Census of Population and Housing is relating to the
improvement of knowledge on the socio-demographic and economic characteristics
of the population to aid in the formulation of coherent social and economic development plans
and programmes.
The specific objectives pursued by the Census are
- to know the overall total number of the Rwandan population and its spatial
distribution;
- to determine the fertility, mortality, migration rates and the natural and the
- overall growth rates of the population;
- to study the housing conditions of individual households;
- to determine the demographic, economic and socio-cultural characteristics
of the population;
- to constitute a geo-demographic database that would enable the creation of
a sampling frame covering the entire national territory.
3. Operational Structures of the 3rd General Census of Population and Housing
The National Census Service (SNR) is the technical institution in charge of the
execution of the 3rd General Census of Population and Housing. It is headed by a
National Coordinator who is assisted by trained professional staff deployed in two main
Services and six Sections. The SNR has been ably assisted both during the
preparatory phases and in the course of project execution, by a team of national and
international experts, who have intervened either on a short-term or long-term
assignments.
The National Census Commission is the body in charge of the overall orientation and
decision-making concerning the Census. The Provincial and District Census Commissions play
the same role as the National Census Commission and represent it at the level of the various
administrative units.
The Census project, whose overall budget for the 4-year period is estimated at 8
million US Dollars, is being funded by the Government of Rwanda, the European Union, bilateral
partners (United Kingdom and The Netherlands) as well as by the UNFPA.
Lastly, the SNR which is attached to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning,
operates in close collaboration with the Directorate of Statistics, one of the major
departments of this Ministry which shall be one of the greatest users of the statistical
data produced by the project.
4. Census Mapping
This activity involved the mapping of the entire national territory and delimiting the
Enumeration Areas (EAs) which are the operational census wards to be assigned to
each enumerator. The same exercise made it possible to update the boundaries of the
various administrative units in conformity with law n° 47/2000 of the 19/12/2000 relating
to the administrative reorganization of the country.
This phase lasted one year (form May 2001 to June 2002) and enabled the SNR to
better estimate the number of field staff to be recruited ( enumerators, team leaders,
supervisors, etc....) and how they shall be deployed as well as the quantity of data
collection materials, in order better program field activities.
Census mapping also culminated in the production of an updated national sampling
frame that shall be used for future sample surveys.
Overall, the entire territory of Rwanda was carved out into 7726 Enumeration Areas
(EAs) which fitted into the boundaries of main administrative units in order to ease
eventual compilation and desegregation of results.
5. The Pilot Census
Every conventional population census must be preceded by a pilot exercise (prototype
census) whose goal is to test validity of the questionnaires and other data collection
tools. Such a pilot exercise was organized in 17 Districts of this country from the 16"' to
the 30"' of August 2001 (one year earlier than the census), such as to correspond with
the period of the year and under identical conditions as the census itself.
During this general rehearsal called the pilot census, various methods and procedures
relating to practical implementation on the field, sensitization of the population, census
mapping, coding and data entry were tested.
After a careful analysis of the outcome of this exercise, the conclusions drawn and
lessons learnt enabled the SNR to better prepare for the smooth conduct of the 3rd General
Census of Population and Housing.
6. Questionnaires and Manuals
Based on the orientations given by the National Census Commission, on discussions
held with various potential users of census information and in conformity with the
recommendations of the United Nations on such matters, the SNR proposed a field
draft of the census questionnaire containing 47 variables along with the requisite
manuals for field staff. The validity of all these instruments was tested during the pilot
census. Lessons learnt during this pretest as well as other needs expressed later by
potential users led the SNR to revise and update the household questionnaire to obtain
a final version with 51 variables. The manuals were modified accordingly.
The data being presented herein as preliminary results has come from the manual
processing of information collected using two main household questionnaires: an
ordinary household questionnaire and a collective household questionnaire.
In addition to these questionnaires, another questionnaire for collecting
information on household agricultural and animal breeding activities was also designed
to be administered at the same time in all households during census enumeration. The
results from this latter questionnaire have not been presented here. They are being
processed by the Ministry in charge of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.
In order to ensure the harmonious execution of the field activities involving the
deployment of over 10.000 field staff, a certain number of manuals containing precise
instructions had to be designed such as to enable each category of staff to successfully
accomplish their individual tasks. In this direction, manuals were prepared for
enumerators (9,150), team leaders (1,150), supervisors (163) and for
provincial controllers (24).
7. Publicity and Sensitization
An elaborate publicity and sensitization campaign strategy was designed by the SNR,
following the directives given by the National Census Commission, to better I inform the
general public about the pertinence of the 3rd General Census of Population and
Housing in order to enlist their active involvement, but also the various administrative
and religious authorities in order to ensure their involvement and active collaboration
during the execution of the field activities of the Census.
Campaign activities were launched a few months to the pilot census and became
more intensive and diversified as the project approached the actual field enumeration phase.
They were sustained during the entire period of field data collection. All local administrative
authorities were particularly involved during all sensitization activities and their input significantly
contributed to the success of these campaigns. Campaign strategies included the following:
- sensitization trips to the Provinces and Districts
- articles in local newspapers
- radio and television programmes
- banners, billboards, publicity spots, communiqués, etc..
Overall, the publicity and sensitization activities greatly contributed to the success of
the field activities. Indeed, the results which are being presented herein are ample
testimony of the close collaboration of the general public and the various political and
administrative leaders during the data collection phase
8. Training of Field Staff
Various types of staff training sessions have been organized during the course of the
execution of the 3rd General Census of Population and Housing either for staff of the
SNR or for temporary personnel by experts hired to execute specific phases of the
project.
Training for the senior staff of the SNR usually took the form either in-country
workshops organized by experts who came on mission or short-term training abroad,
particularly in Senegal, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, France and in Romania.
Each major phase of this project was heralded by at least one training session
organized in order to acquaint the temporary staff, .that would be recruited to intervene
during that phase, with the basic details of the work to be done. It is thus that, before
the census mapping phase could be launched, two training sessions were organized,
one for topographers and another for draughts men. Both the pilot census and the main
Census itself were preceded by an initial centralized training of trainers in Kigali
followed by the decentralized training of field enumerators and team leaders at the level
of the Districts.
As the main Census itself approached, training activities were organized involving
some close to 12,000 field staff of various categories including:
- enumerators
- team leaders
- Supervisors in the Districts
- Controllers in the Provinces and
- Trainers in Kigali
The training of trainers was successfully carried out in Kigali between the 13th and the
23rd of July while that of the other field staff ensued from the 29th of July to the 4th of
August. These sessions laid emphasis on the sound mastery of the census
questionnaires and on the practical field administration of these tools. Overall, the .
training offered yielded good returns.
9. Field Enumeration
The dates for the actual field census enumeration which were programmed to span
from the morning of August 16th to the night of August 30th 2002 were respected to the
letter over the entire national territory.
The role of each of the field staff and other stakeholders had been clearly specified in
their individual manuals and other instructions from the SNR. Provincial controllers,
supervisors and team leaders were expected to oversee the day-to-day execution of
the work through the follow-up of the performance of the field enumerators. The latter
were expected to make a daily feedback on the progress of their work to their team
leaders who, in term had to proceed to make the requisite verifications and provide
timely solutions to problems that arose as the work progressed.
The logistic facilities on the field were quite adequate: vehicles and various other
materials were made available at the level of each District. Also, ample dispositions
were made to establish regular contacts with various local authorities such as to ensure
their close collaboration on the field. Publicity and sensitization campaigns were further
intensified during the 15 days of enumeration in order to ensure that everybody was
fully informed.
As soon as the field enumeration was officially closed, the process of assembling all the
questionnaires and other materials started with the enumerators and team leaders who
forwarded these to the District supervisors and thence to the Provincial controllers for
onward transmission to the SNR in Kigali. This lasted over one week, during which
period issues relating to transportation, report writing and payment of ' salaries of field
staff had to be handled simultaneously.
10. Subsequent Activities of the Census Project
The main activities that were programmed to follow after the field data collection phase
are: data processing, the creation of a geographical information system (GIS), data
analyses; the publication of results and the dissemination of these results.
The data processing phase started with the verification and coding of the questionnaires
and was followed concomitantly, by the computer data entry exercise which culminated in the
production of the final clean data file of the results of the Third General Census of Population
and Housing of Rwanda. It also enabled the creation of an updated national sampling frame for
the country. At the end of this phase, the final detailed statistical tabulations of the
census results were made available.
With regard to the creation of a national Geographic Information System (GIS) from
information collected during the census, the census maps which were used during
field enumeration were first digitized, after which cartographic data, collected
during the census mapping phase using Global Positioning System (GPS)
instruments were incorporated. Subsequently, other socio-demographic data
obtained after data processing and analyses and relating to individual administrative
units have been incorporated to constitute a geo-referenced database that can be
used to produce thematic maps as well as a socio-demographic atlas of Rwanda.
The data analysis phase involved the transformation of the raw statistical data
that were produced into a number of indicators, whose levels differentials
and trends were interpreted and compared. In all, sixteen different themes
were identified for the in-depth analyses of the socio-demographic situation of
Rwanda.
The documents which shall eventually be produced and released to all potential users
include: a preliminary report, the final statistical tabulations of the census results, a summary report
on the results of the census, reports from the various thematic analyses, regional
monographs and the final report on the execution of the 3rd General Census of
Population and Housing.
The mere publishing of results is not sufficient, these shall be widely distributed
and disseminated as part of the activities programmed. Dissemination
seminars and round table discussions are organized at both the national and
regional levels. Furthermore, press conferences, articles and other press releases
are being made available to various media channels such as to ensure that the
information contained in these reports reaches as wide enough a public as possible.
Also, the National Census Service shall develop a web site in order to place the
results of the 3rd General Census of Population and Housing at the disposal of both
the national and international public.