In less than two months, the National Statistics Office (NSO), the major statistical agency of the government, will begin counting the country's populace.

Beginning AUGUST 1, about 37,000 NSO trained census-takers (enumerators), over 7,000 team supervisors, and almost 2,000 census area supervisors will augment the NSO field staff in the nationwide conduct of the 2007 Census of Population (POPCEN 2007) to make a complete count of all residents, both Filipinos and foreigners, who have stayed or are expected to stay for at least a year in the Philippines.

Enumerators wearing official POPCEN 2007 IDs will visit and interview every household to ask basic information about the number of people residing within the house including their ages, sex, marital status, education, and other demographic, social and economic characteristics. The interview will take about 15 to 30 minutes.

"POPCEN 2007 aims to provide accurate and timely statistics on our country's population at the smallest geographic area possible," said NSO Administrator Carmelita N. Ericta. She added that while the agency has the capability and technical expertise to do the job, she underscored the important role of the entire nation in the successful conduct of the census.

"Census-taking is a gigantic task. We are once again calling for and counting on the cooperation of everyone to please allow our authorized census enumerators to take a few minutes of your time for the POPCEN 2007 interview. We are also calling on the support of our partners from both the government and the private sectors, national and local officials, non-government organizations, religious and educational institutions to make this nationwide data-gathering activity a success." She also emphasized that Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 591 guarantees that any information obtained during the census enumeration shall be held strictly confidential.

The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1878 by the colonial Spanish government. Said census yielded a count of 5,567,685 persons living in the archipelago as of December 31, 1877. In the last census of its kind in the country conducted in May 2000, the country's population was placed at 76.5 million.

Updated information on the size of the population will provide government planners, policy makers and administrators with data on which to base their social and economic development plans and program. It also serves, as basis for 1) Internal Revenue Allotment for the local government units (LGUs); 2) apportionment of congressional seats for the legislative branch; 3) creation of new LGUs, i.e., provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays; and 4) conversion of a unit to higher level such as from a municipality into a city, among others. Businesses and industries use the statistical information from the census in determining 1) sites for establishing businesses; 2) consumer demands for various goods and services; and 3) supply of labor for the production of goods and services.

Population counts by province, city, municipality, and barangay are targeted for release by the NSO on February 28, 2008. Upon proclamation by the President of the Philippines, said population count shall be considered final and official for all purposes. POPCEN 2007 data will be made available in printed volumes and compact discs. ###

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