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This paper has been reproduced as submitted.
It has been issued without formal editing.
1.
Introduction
The pearl shaped island of the
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is
situated at Southern tip of India between Northern
latitudes 50 55' and 90
50' and eastern longitudes 790 42'
and 810 52'. The island spares a land
area of 65,608 square kilometers. Sri Lanka
has a recorded history stretches back about more
than 2500 years. Since the 15th
century the country experienced several foreign
invations and was ruled in succession by the Portuguese,
the Dutch and British until 1948, when independence
gained. Since the independence the country
exhibited significant changes in her social status,
education, public health, as well as economic
condition.
Sri Lanka is a country having
reliable demographic data for considerable years.
The main sources of the information are periodic
censuses and surveys conducted by the Department
of Census and Statistics (DCS) which is the central
statistical agency in the country.
Sri Lanka has a long history
of census takings. the first scientific
census was conducted in 1871, 130 years ago.
Since then censuses were conducted usually in
every 10 years with certain exceptions.
The last census was carried out in 1981.
The census, which was scheduled to be conducted
in 1991 could not be implemented due to the disturbances
in Northern and Eastern parts of the country.
The Department of Census and statistics which
is the Government central statistics agency of
the country has made the arrangements to conduct
the next census of Population and Housing in June
2001 after a lapse of 20 years from the last census.
Arrangements have to be made to conduct the census
when a civil war is in operation in Northern and
Eastern provinces and there are also large number
of refugees residing in temporary dwellings outside
the war affected areas. These factors make
the census taking more complicated in the country.
2.
Organization of the Census
Censuses are conducted under
the census ordinance which was recently amended
by census (amendment) act No.55 of 2000.
Legal authority for a census is required for fixing
administrative responsibilities on public officers,
placing legal obligation upon the public to give
correct answers and for maintaining confidentiality
of the individual information. Censuses
are organized since 1946 by the DCS in collaboration
with the district administration.
The Director General of the
DCS is the Superintendent of census and responsible
for the entire census organization. In each
district, the District Secretary is appointed
as the Commissioner of Census for the District
and assisted by a Deputy and an Assistant Commissioner.
Divisional Secretaries are Deputy Commissioners
for their respective Divisional Secretary divisions.
Assistant Divisional Secretaries serve as Asst.
Commissioners of Ceusis for the particular D.S.
Division. The staff of the Department of
Census and Statistics at district and divisional
level provides the necessary technical assistance
in conducting the census.
The census is carried out in
4 stages:
Mapping operation
Listing operation
Conducting the preliminary
census
Conducting the final
census
3.
Administrative Control of the Census
Control and conduct of the Census
will be done by the District Administration. Country
is divided into 25 administrative districts and
each district is divided into several Divisional
Secretary (DS) divisions. Each DS division is
divided into Grama Niladari (GN) division which
are the smallest administrative area of the country.
A GN division is divided into several Census Blocks
(CB) within the villages, estates and wards. 98027
CB s are demarcated in the mapping stage of the
Census.
4.
Census Cartography
Census enumeration areas were
demarcated at the mapping stage of the Census
which was conducted in 1999. Identification and
demarcation of the boundaries of GN divisions
and CB were completed with the assistance of District
administration. 1:10000 scale maps and 1:63360
scale maps were incorporated for this mapping
exercise. A map demarcated CBs in the GN division
will be provided to the Census Enumerator with
the listing form at the enumeration stage.
5.
Pilot Census of Population and Housing
A Pilot Census in the sense
of testing the pre-listing and enumeration procedures
and the processing of data was conducted in 312
Census Blocks (CBs) and each CB was randomly selected
from the Grama Niladari Division (GN) which was
randomly selected from each Divisional Secretary
Division.
The field work was carried out
by the Range Statistical Investigators. The schedules
were reviewed. The observations made in the Pilot
Census were used to improve the questionnaires
and the instruction manuals and developing edit
checks for quality control.
6.
Data Collection
Enumerator method will be used
for data collection. Two types of schedules
will be used to collect the information.
Population and Housing
schedule
Infirmity schedule
i. Population and
Housing Schedule
This schedule collects 24 items
from individuals pertaining to
Demographic characteristics
(name, relationship, sex, date of birth, marital
status, citizenship, religion, ethnic group)
Migration patterns (district
of birth, district of usual residence, duration
of residence and previous residence)
Educational characteristics
(education during last 30 days, educational
qualification, literacy)
Economic characteristics
(type of activities, occupation, industry,
employment status, non economic activities)
fertility (total live
births, number of living children, date of
birth of last live birth)
in addition, this schedule collects
data on housing which is divided into information
pertaining to the unit and household.
Unit characteristics
(occupancy status, number of households, number
of persons, materials of construction, type
of structure, year of construction, usage,
number of rooms)
Household characteristics
(availability of toilet, type of toilet, source
of drinking water, type of lighting, type
of cooking fuel, tenure)
Questions on migration
and housing, which were collected on a sample
basis at the last census, will be collected
on a complete enumeration basis in the up
coming census. One significant feature
of the census schedule is the inclusion of
a question to identify both defacto and dejure
population.
ii. Infirmity schedule
This schedule collects information
pertaining to 6 types of disabilities (seeing,
hearing, speaking, disabilities in legs, other
physical disabilities and mental disabilities),
causes of such disabilities and age at which such
disability occurred.
7.
Data Capture and Data Processing
Data capture is centralized
at the Data Processing Division of the DCS located
in the Head Quarters Colombo. Schedules
forms in batches (by Census Block, Each may contain
up to 100 households) by the Data Control Clerk
after necessary noting in a control book.
Note: Manual
checks, coding of items such as Industry, Occupation
etc completed at the Census Division of the
DCS before receiving at the Data Processing
Division of the DCS.
Data Entry
Data entry is done on-line with
batches of schedules where each batch contains
one Census Block (there are 100,000 Census Blocks)
and continuous for one DS Division.
Data files contains 3 types
of records with length 96 characters.
Person Information
Housing Unit Information
Household Information
Off-line data editing
(Using 5 Pentium III PC systems)
The data files so produced is concatenated into
DS Divisions
( 256 DS Divisions in the Country).
Each DS Division data file is
edited by using in-house developed IMPS
(Integrated Microcomputer Processing System, developed
by US Bureau of the Census) programs.
Main features being
Structural Edit
Range Edit
Consistency Edit
System flow chart for data
editing
Imputations
Validated data will go through
an imputation process to ensure that erroneous
and missing data items of non response cases imputed.
Necessary imputation procedures are provided from
the Census Division.
* All Procedures of the systems
are tested with the data files obtained from the
Pilot Census held earlier.
Processing of Tables
8.
Analysis of Census results
National and local government
authorities, academic researchers and others
will utilize census results according to their
needs. Analytical studies will be commence soon
after the Census observing the priorities and
according to the policy needs of the country.
Census data will be examined
not only by themselves but also as complemented
by relevant data from other sources and from earlier
censuses, in order to obtain a broader context,
improve the estimates and establish trends. Policy
oriented analysis of census results and
detailed analytical studies of one or more aspects
of the demographic and social situations of the
country will be done without duplications.
9.
Data Storage & Dissemination
Data will be stored in IBM S390
Integrated server and Zip diskettes in following
categories.
Row data in Population
and Infirmary schedules
Edited data in
Population and Infirmary schedules
Imputed data in Population
and Infirmary schedules
The processed data will be available
as publications and on electronic media such as
diskettes, CD-ROMs. There will be on-line data
dissemination through internet.
Census data will be made available
to potential users in the form suited their needs.
A range of statistical products will be made available
to the public, the private sector, government
agencies, local authorities and the academic and
research communities.
Immediate head count will be
publish soon after the census night. First data
release will be done based on the enumerator summaries
by aggregating up to district levels. Tables
and reports will be published after processing
data. Tailor-made tabulations will be produced
upon user's request. List of tables annexed
herewith.
List
of Population Tables
1
Population
of Sri Lanka in Census years from year 1871
by intercensal increase, percentage increase,
average annual growth rate and population
density
2
Population
of Sri Lanka by province, district, sector
and sex
3
Urban Population
in districts by urban locality, age and
sex
4
Rural Population
in districts by divisional secretariat divisions,
age and sex
5
Estate Population
in districts by divisional secretariat divisions,
age and sex
6
Population
of districts by electorates, age and sex
7
Population
by Single years of age, sex and sector
8
Population
by marital status, age, sex and sector
9
Relationship
to head of household by marital status,
sex and sector
10
Population
by country of citizenship, age and sex
11
Population
by religion, age, sex and sector
11A
Clergy population
by religion, age, sex and sector
12
Population
by ethnic group, age, sex and sector
13
Population
aged 10 years and over by literacy, age,
sex and sector
14
Population
aged 10 years and over by ability to speak,
read and write Sinhala, Tamil
and English languages, ethnic group, sex
and sector
15
Population
aged 3 years and over by attending pre-school
by age, sex and sector
16
Population
aged 5 - 34 years by attendance in educational
institutions, single years of age, sex and
sector
17
Population
aged 5 - 34 years attending educational
institutions by educational attainment,
age, sex and sector
18
Population
aged 5 years and over by educational attainment,
age, sex and sector
19
Population
aged 5 years and over not attending school
by educational attainment, age, sex and
sector
20
Population
aged 10 years and over by usual activity
status, age, sex and sector
21
Usually active
population aged 10 years and over by activity
status, marital status, age, sex and sector
22
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main occupation
(3 digit level), sex and sector
23
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main industry
(3 digit level), sex and sector
24
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main status in
employment, age, sex and sector
25
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by sector of employment,
age, sex and sector
26
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main occupation
(2 digit level), level of education, sex
and sector
27
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main industry
(2 digit level), level of education, sex
and sector
28
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main occupation,
main industry, sex and sector
29
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main occupation
(2 digit level), main status in employment,
sex and sector
30
Employed population
aged 10 years and over by main industry
(2 digit level), main status in employment,
sex and sector
31
Usually active
population aged 10 years and over by main
status in employment and number of weeks
worked in all occupations during the previous
12 months, sex and sector
32
Employed female
population aged 15 years and over by marital
status, main occupation (2 digit level)
and sector
33
Heads of households
aged 10 years and over by usual activity
status and main status in employment by
age, sex and sector
34
Usually active
population aged 10 years and over by activity
status, relationship to head of household,
age, sex and sector
35
Ever married
female population aged 15 years and over
by number of children born alive and sector
36
Ever married
female population aged 15 years and over
by age, number of living children and sector
37
Ever married
female population aged 15 - 49 years, number
of live births occured within the 12 months
preceding the census and educational attainment
38
Total Population
by disability, age and sex
List
of Housing Tables
1
Living quarters
by type, number of households and persons:
Provinces and Districts
2
Housing units
by occupancy status: Provinces and
Districts
3
Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type: Provinces and Districts
4
Occupied housing
units and collective living quarters by
type, number of households and sector
5
Occupied housing
units and collective living quarters by
type, number of occupants and sector
6
Households
in occupied housing units and collective
living quarters by type, age and sex of
head of household and sector
7
Households
in occupied housing units and collective
living quarters by type, type of activity,
occupation and sex of head of household
and sector
8
Homeless households
by age, sex and type of activity of head
of household and sector
9
Occupied housing
units by type of structure and sector
10
Occupied housing
units by type, usage and sector
11
Occupied housing
units by type, year of construction, principal
material of outer walls and sector
12
Occupied housing
units by type, year of construction, principal
material of floor and sector
13
Occupied housing
units by type, year of construction, principal
material of roof and sector
14
Occupied housing
units by construction material of outer
walls, roof, floor and sector
15
Occupied housing
units by type, number of rooms, number of
occupants and sector
16
Occupied housing
units by type, number of rooms, number of
households and sector
17
Number of Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type, toilet facilities and sector
18
Number of Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type, main source of drinking water and
sector
19
Number of Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type, principal type of lighting and sector
20
Number of Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type, principal type of cooking fuel and
sector
21
Number of Households
and persons in occupied housing units by
type, tenure and sector
List
of Migration Tables
1
Usual residents
by district of birth, living since birth,
number of in-migrants and their duration
of move to usual residence of district and
sex
2
Population
of Sri Lanka, district of usual residence
by district of birth and sex
3
Migrant population
of Sri Lanka by duration of residence in
usually living district by district of previous
residence
4
Migrant population
in the district of usual residence by district
of previous residence, age and sex : District
5
Population
of Sri Lanka by district of usual residence,
sex and sector
