Abstract

A census gives a complete and comprehensive picture of the nation as well as groups of people living in specific areas. In what type of buildings and housing units are we living? What are the amenities and facilities that are available therein? How many rooms are there and what is the extent of overcrowding? How many people live in a given town or locality? How many children are there? How many women are there? How many are old enough to vote? What kind of jobs are we doing? What is our level of education? Do we have the required qualifications or skills to satisfy the needs of the labour market? The census helps to answer these questions and many others.

It provides up-to-date and disaggregated data on the housing conditions, the spatial distribution, and the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population. These data are essential for assessing the country's demographic, social and economic performance and for developing sound policies and programmes aimed at fostering the welfare of the country and its population.

Census data are also useful to business, industrial and commercial organisations to estimate and forecast demand for their products and services, and to assess the supply of manpower with the relevant skills to run their activities.

Furthermore, census data are used in the derivation of many important and meaningful social indicators that are needed by local and international organizations. Thus, many social indicators, as defined in the set of indicators recommended by the United Nations Statistics Division, can only be worked out from census data.

Legal framework Census 2000 was conducted according to provisions of the Statistics Act of 7 April 1951. The underlying procedures are given in Sections 5, 6 and 13 of the Act. In March 1998, the Cabinet agreed to the conduct of a housing and population census in year 2000. In June 1999, it gave its approval to the census dates and to the topics to be investigated. The regulations for the Housing Census, prescribing the particulars and information to be collected, were subsequently prepared and approved by the President in November 1999. The regulations were published as Government Notice 170 of 1999. In December 1999, the President made an order to the effect that a census of the population be taken between 19 June and 16 July 2000 in respect of all persons alive at midnight on 2 July 2000. The Order was gazetted in December 1999. The regulations for the Population Census, prescribing the particulars and information to be collected were approved by the President in April 2000 and published as Government Notice 57 of 2000.

Geographic coverage

Housing and population enumerations were conducted on the Islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues and Agalega. As regards St Brandon islands, only a count of persons spending census night on the islands was made, these islands being fishing stations with no resident population.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual
• Housing unit

Universe

The Housing Census enumerated all buildings, housing units, households, commercial and industrial establishments, hotels and boarding houses as well as fruit trees of bearing age on residential premises.

The Population Census enumerated all persons present on census night in all households and communal establishments, as well as usual residents who were away on census night.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Mode of data collection

Self administered and face to face

Research instrument

Questionnaire Design Consultation with stakeholders from Government Ministries and Departments started in 1998. Heads of Government Ministries and Departments were invited via a circular letter to submit a list of demographic, social and economic data they considered essential for administration, planning and policy-making and which could be collected at the census. The proposals received were discussed at various levels. In the light of these discussions and taking into account recommendations of the United Nations Statistics Division on subject matters that can be investigated at a census, final selection of topics was made at a meeting with subject matter specialists from our parent Ministry.

The main considerations in the final selection of topics were: - the importance of the topics to the country - the cost for collecting and processing data on a given item - where it was possible by other means to obtain satisfactory information more cheaply, the topic was not selected - the suitability of topics - sensitive and controversial issues as well as questions that were too complicated or difficult for the average respondent to answer were avoided - whether the census was the appropriate method for data collection - topics that required detailed investigation or highly qualified staff were not included since they would be best canvassed by sample surveys.

Housing Census Questionnaire All topics investigated at the 1990 Census were included in the 2000 Housing Census questionnaire. Three new items were however added. These were: “Availability of domestic water tank/reservoir”, “Principal fuel used in bathroom” and “Fruit trees on premises”.

The housing census questionnaire was divided into seven parts. A list of topics and items included in the questionnaire is given below: Part I - Location Part II - Type of Building Part III - Characteristics of buildings - Storeys above ground floor
- Year of completion
- Principal material of construction used for roof and walls
Part IV - Characteristics of housing units - Ownership
- Occupancy
- Water supply
- Domestic water tank/reservoir - Availability of electricity
- Toilet facilities
- Bathing facilities
- Availability of kitchen - Refuse disposal Part V - Characteristics of households - Household type - Name and address of head of household - Number of persons by sex - Tenure - Number of rooms for living purposes - Number of rooms for business or profession - Monthly rent - Principal fuel used for cooking - Principal fuel used in bathroom Part VI - Commercial and industrial establishments, hotels and boarding houses - Name and address of establishment or working proprietor/manager - Main activity in which the establishment is engaged - Number of persons engaged at the time of enumeration Part VII - Fruit-trees on premises - Number of fruit trees of bearing age by type

Population Census Questionnaire The 2000 Population Census questionnaire covered most of the topics investigated at the 1990 Population Census. A question on income was added while the questions on education were reviewed to include qualifications, other than those of the primary and secondary levels, of the respondent. The topic, main activity status of person during the year, which was investigated at the previous census was not included.

Topics and items included in the population census questionnaire are given below: (i) Location (ii) Names of persons These information were asked only to ensure that all members of the household were enumerated. Also, the listing of names of each person facilitated the checking for accuracy and completeness of each entry at the time of enumeration and later, if errors or missing information still persisted on the form. It should be pointed out that names were not captured at the data entry stage, so that data collected could not be identified with any individual person, in line with the requirements of the Statistics Act. (iii) Demographic and social characteristics - Relationship to head (only one head is allowed for each household) - Sex - Age - Date of birth (This question served as a verification to the age reported earlier) - Citizenship - Marital Status - Religion - Linguistic group - Language usually spoken (iv) Whether disabled or not - Type of disability, if disabled (v) Migration characteristics - Whereabouts on Census night - Usual address - Usual address five years ago (vi) Fertility - For persons not single: - Age at first marriage - Whether married more than once - Number of children ever born (for women only) (vii) Education characteristics - For persons 2 years and above: - Languages read and written - School attendance - Primary and secondary education (viii) Current economic characteristics (ix) Income

Census Guide and Instructions A census guide and instructions booklet was prepared and distributed to all heads of households. The booklet contained extensive explanations on how to fill in the census form and answered questions that people usually asked about censuses. Thus the objectives of the census, what happened to the census forms once the enumeration was over, the confidential aspect of collected information as well as the usefulness of each item were explained.

Printing of Census Questionnaires and Guides
The census questionnaires, and the census guide and instructions booklets were printed by the Government Printer. The numbers printed were as follows: (i) Housing Census questionnaires - 16,000 booklets of 25 questionnaires (ii) Population Census questionnaires - 375,000 (iii) Census guide and instructions booklets - 312,000

Cleaning operations

Recruitment and Training of Editors and Coders About 15 clerical officers who were previously engaged in the various units of the Office and 10 newly recruited statistical officers were called on to the editing and coding of the census forms while a request for the services of 50 additional clerical officers was made to the Ministry for Civil Service Affairs and Administrative Reform. Between March 2000 and May 2001, small groups of clerical officers from the ministry joined the

Abstract

The Investment Climate Surveys (ICS) were conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and covered firms of all sizes in many industries. The ICS collected a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face-to-face interviews with managers and owners regarding the investment climate in their country and the productivity of their firms. Topics covered in the ICS included the obstacles to doing business, infrastructure, finance, labor, corruption and regulation, contract enforcement, law and order, innovation and technology, and firm productivity. Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative data helped connect a country’s investment climate characteristics with firm productivity and performance.

Firm-level surveys have been administered since 1998 by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit (FPDEA). Enterprise Surveys, a replacement for Investment Climate Surveys, are now conducted by the Enterprise Analysis Unit.

Sri Lanka Investment Climate Survey 2004 covered urban as well as rural establishments. The dataset in this file describes urban manufacturing firms. Data from 452 formal establishments in textiles, garments, food and beverages, rubber products, and industrial equipment industries was analyzed.

Geographic coverage

National

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sri Lanka has nine provinces which are further subdivided into 25 districts. Of these 25 districts, some areas are considered urban, which are either administered by municipality center/urban center (MC/UC - 16 MCs and 30 UCs). The rural areas are administered by district secretary local government.

The urban manufacturing part of Sri Lanka ICS 2004 covered the following sectors: Food and Beverage (ISIC 311, 312, 313), Textile (321), Garments (322), Industrial Equipment (382), and Rubber Products (355).

The sampling frame was comprised of the following sources: 1) List of manufacturing establishments for the Western Province (3 districts) developed in cooperation with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). A draft list was consolidated from the registers of the Board of Investment, Ministry of Industries, Ministry of Textile and MEIPIP and was further improved by ground checks. DCS is confident that they have captured all the establishments with five or more employees in the Western Province. 2) List of manufacturing establishments with 25 or more employees that were used as the sampling frame for the Annual Survey of Manufacturing Industries. This list originated from the 1983 Census of Establishments. The 1993 Census of Establishments Establishments was not conducted because of the political situation in the country and was updated annually from the registers mentioned above. 3) List of manufacturing establishments with less than 25 employees that were sampled for the Annual Survey of Industries.

Establishments that had 500 or more employees were selected with certainty, while others were selected by using the stratified simple random sample design. In general, the strata were defined by the sector "X" provincial groups. In cases where the stratum sizes in specific sectors were very sparse, sectors were collapsed. Hence, the final stratification was determined by iteratively collapsing small strata until a sufficient strata size was obtained to ensure a 100% replacement in all strata and adequate strata sample sizes.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The current survey instrument is available: - Investment Climate Survey Questionnaire.

The survey includes questions on firm productivity, cost of doing business, regulatory environment, labor market, financial sector, trade regime, technology and levels of investment.