The National Statistics Office (NSO) will release the population count by barangay by the end of February 2001. Results of the nationwide census of population and housing (CPH), otherwise known as Census 2000, are needed by local government units, among others, for internal revenue allocation and for the creation of new administrative districts.

Earlier, the NSO presented the preliminary results of Census 2000 by province and by city/municipality to the Office of the President, in time with the celebration of the agency’s 60^th Anniversary at Heroes Hall in Malacañang. Preliminary census results, which were based on the census quick count of field summaries, were released less than two months after the culmination of the census field operations that began in May 2000.

Pursuant to Batas Pambansa Blg. 72 the final population count by barangay as determined from the processed census returns shall be submitted to the President of the Philippines before the end of every census year for proclamation as official population counts for all purposes.

According to Administrator Tomas Africa, the NSO has considered all options to submit the population counts as targeted. However, operational and technical problems were experienced in the four (4) Data Capture Centers (DCCs) established to undertake the census processing. Financial difficulties in government brought about by the economic crisis in the country delayed the release of census funds for the acquisition of vital equipment for the machine processing. Likewise, salaries of DCC personnel hired on contractual basis were also delayed for two to four weeks causing interruptions in the delivery of expected outputs. These incidents have caused the unexpected adjustment in the timetable of activities.

The NSO is adopting new technology in the processing of all CPH questionnaires from the different provinces. At the DCCs, data on the more than 15 million census questionnaires are being converted to electronic images and computer-readable (ASCII) data. Final population counts by barangay will be based on the processed data from the DCCs.