Challenge of Census: Finding People at Home

Tanisha Chavarria

But there are many who claim that they have not been engaged so far by any data collector.  Now, in terms of population density, Belize District, specifically the city, has the largest population. And while Tanisha Chavarria says that households have generally been cooperative, there have been challenges with finding persons at home.

Tanisha Chavarria, Acting Census & Surveys Manager, S.I.B.

“Generally, there has been a very good reception. Of the households that we have identified in all the buildings, our response rate looks at around ninety-three percent of households answering. The main challenge that we have is finding persons at home. So when the interviewers, they usually work in small geographical areas called the numeration districts and then they move to another area, while they are out in the field, persons might not be at home, they may be at work or they are travelling. And so to tackle that, the interviewers they try to go after five or six in the afternoon and especially on the weekends or public and bank holidays. That has helped with the response rate, but we are still not finding many persons at home. For households that perhaps they saw their neighbours get enumerated or they have heard of interviewers collecting data in their area, they would call the S.I.B. So you could call the S.I.B. and the S.I.B. would relay that message to our regional census coordinators who would make that visit to your households. So if you are interested and you perhaps want to make an appointment with an interviewer, you can contact us and we will set that up for you.”