The Census is the official count of population, dwellings and households in Tonga and it provides a ‘snapshot’ of the country at one specific point in time: 30th of November 2011. A Tonga census has been taken once in every ten years since 1956. However the population census of 2011 is the first population census by 5 year interval from the previous census in 2006 due to the Electoral Boundary Commission (EBC)'s request according to its Act 2010.

The census provides a unique source of detailed demographic, social and economic data relating the entire population and its most precious resource of its people. This information is used for policy making and planning, monitoring and evaluation, research and other decision-making.

The census is often the primary source of information such as used for allocation of public funding, especially in areas such as health, education and social policy. The main users of this information are the government, local authorities, education facilities (such as schools and tertiary organizations), businesses, community organizations and the public in general.

v01: Edited cleaned version of the Master file (after processing version). Labelling of values and variables done.

The scope of the 2011 Tonga Census of Population and Housing includes:
- HOUSEHOLD: Household listing, dwelling characteristics, housing utilities, durable goods, information technology, income, remittances, and mortality.
- INDIVIDUAL: Personal characteristics, migration, disability, smoking habit, education, labour force and employment, voting eligibility, and fertility

• Collection start: 2011
• Collection end: 2011

Abstract

The Census is the official count of population and dwellings in Tonga, providing a ‘snapshot’ of the society and its most precious resource, its people, at a point in time. The official reference period of the census was midnight, the 30th of November, 2006.

The census provides a unique source of detailed demographic, social and economic data relating the entire population at a single point in time. Census information is used for policy setting and implementation, research, planning and other decision-making. The census is often the primary source of information used for the allocation of public funding, especially in areas such as health, education and social policy. The main users of this information are the government, local authorities, education facilities (such as schools and tertiary organizations), businesses, community organizations and the public in general.

The 2006 Census was taken under the authority of Section 8 of Statistical Act Chap. 53 of 1978 which empowers the Minister of Finance to make regulations necessary to conduct the population Census. This regulation was approved by the Cabinet and cited as Census Regulation 2006. The Census regulations also indicate that the Government Statistician would be responsible for the administration and completion of the Census. In addition, the regulations enabled the Statistics Department to carry out the necessary activities required to plan, manage and implement all the necessary Census activities.

Census Planning and Management From a planning and management perspective, the Census had two main objectives. Firstly, it was to ensure that the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and disseminating of demographic, economic and social data was conducted in a timely and accurate manner. The development of procedures and processes for the 2006 Census of Population and Housing made use of the lessons learned in previous censuses, and built upon recommendations for improvements.

Secondly, it was a valuable opportunity for building the capacities of employees of the Statistics Department (SD), thus resulting in enhancing the image, credibility and reputation of the Department and at the same time, strengthening its infrastructure. Emphasis was placed on having a senior staff with a wide perspective and leadership qualities. Through the use of vision, planning, coordination, delegation of responsibility and a strong team spirit, the census work was conducted in an effective and efficient manner. Staffs at all levels were encouraged to have an innovative mindset in addressing issues. Incentives for other parties to participate, both within Statistics Department Tonga Tonga 2006 Census of Population and Housing viii and outside the government, were encouraged. As a result, the wider community including donors such as AusAID, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, that provided the technical assistance and the general public, were able to support the census project.

Extensive and detailed planning is needed to conduct a successful census. Areas that required planning include: enumeration procedures and fieldwork, public communication, data processing and output systems, mapping and the design of census block boundaries, dissemination procedures, content determination and questionnaire development and training. These aspects, and how they interacted with each other, played a crucial role in determining the quality of all of the census outputs. Each phase therefore required careful, methodical planning and testing. The details of such activities, and their implementation and responsibilities were assigned to 5 subcommittees composed of staff members of the SD.

Organizational Structure of the Census A census organizational structure is designed to implement a number of interrelated activities. Each of these activities was assigned to a specific sub-committee. The census manuals provided guidelines on processes, organizational structures, controls for quality assurance and problem solving. The challenge for managers was developing a work environment that enabled census personnel to perform all these tasks with a common goal in mind. Each sub-committee was responsible for its own outputs, and specific decisions for specific situations were delegated to the lowest level possible. Problem situations beyond the scope of the sub-committee were escalated to the next higher level.

The organizational structure of the census was as follows: a) The Steering Committee (consisting of the Head of both Government and nongovernment organizations), chaired by Secretary for Finance with the Government Statistician (GS) as secretary. b) The Census Committee (consisted of all sub-committee leaders plus the GS, and chaired by the Assistant Government Statistician (AGS) who was the officer in charge of all management and planning of the Census 2006 operations. c) There were five Sub-committees (each sub-committee consisted of about 5 members and were chaired by their Sub-committee leader). These committees included: Mapping, Publicity, Fieldwork, Training and Data Processing. In this way, every staff member of the SD was involved with the census operation through their participation on these committees.

The census steering committee was a high level committee that approved and endorsed the plans and activities of the census. Policy issues that needed to be addressed were submitted to the steering committee for approval prior to the census team and sub-committees designation of the activities necessary to address the tasks.

Part of the initial planning of the 2006 Census involved the establishment of a work-plan with specific time frames. This charted all activities that were to be undertaken and, their impact and dependencies on other activities. These time frames were an essential part of the overall exercise, as they provided specific guides to the progress of each area, and alerted subcommittees’ team leaders (TL) to areas where problems existed and needed to be addressed. These also provided the SD staff with a clear indication of where and how their roles impacted the overall Census process.

Monitoring of the timeframe was an essential part of the management of the Census program. Initially, weekly meetings were held which involved the GS, AGS and team leaders (TL) of the Census committee. As the Census projects progressed, the AGS and TL’s met regularly with their sub-committees to report on the progress of each area. Decisions were made on necessary actions in order to meet the designated dates. Potential risks that could negatively affect the deadlines and actions were also considered at these meetings.

For the 5 sub-committees, one of their first tasks was to verify and amend their terms of reference using the “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats” (SWOT) analysis methodology, as it applied to past censuses. Each committee then prepared a work-plan and listed all activities for which that particular sub-committee was responsible. This listing included the assignment of a responsible person, together with the timeline indicating the start and end dates required to complete that particular activity. These work-plans, set up by all the 5 sub-committees, were then used by the AGS to develop a detailed operational plan for all phases of the census, the activities required to complete these phases, start and end dates, the person responsible and the dependencies, - all in a Ghant chart format. These combined work-plans were further discussed and amended in the Census team and reported to the Steering committee on regular basis as required.

Geographic coverage

The Population Census covers the whole of the Kingdom of Tonga, which includes the 5 Divisions and both Urban and Rural Areas.

Analysis unit

Individuals, families and private households

Universe

All individuals in private and institutional households.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

The National Population Census was a complete enumeration census, hence no sampling procedure was employed. A Mapping Sub-committee was formed to ensure complete coverage of the country.

The Mapping Sub-committee Led by Mr. Winston Fainga'anuku, this committee's mandate was to ensure that good quality maps were produced. The objective was to ensure that the maps provided complete coverage of the country, were designed to accommodate a reasonable workload of one census enumerator and, that geographic identifiers could be used for dissemination purposes by the PopGIS system. Collaborations with the Ministry of Land, Survey and Natural Resources (MLSNR) began in 2004 to ensure that digitized maps for Tonga could be used for 2006 Census. Mr. Fainga'anuku was attached to the MLSNR in April 2005 to assist 'Atelea Kautoke, Samuela Mailau, Lilika and others to complete the task of digitizing the maps for Tonga. In addition, frequent visits by Mr. Scott Pontifex from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, assisted to ensure that quality digitized maps were prepared. SPC also assisted by lending its digitizer which was used in this mapping project. The staff of the Statistics Department (SD) visited household sites throughout Tongatapu and the main outer islands. This exercise was to redesign the Census Block boundaries by amalgamating or splitting existing census blocks to achieve an average of 50 households per census block. Various updates within the census block maps were made. These included the names of the head of household; roads and other landmarks to ensure that current and accurate information was provided to the enumerators. Reliable maps, both for enumerators and supervisors are necessary ingredients to assist in

Abstract

The Census is the official count of population, dwellings and households in Tonga and it provides a ‘snapshot’ of the country at one specific point in time: 30th of November 2011. A Tonga census has been taken once in every ten years since 1956. However the population census of 2011 is the first population census by 5 year interval from the previous census in 2006 due to the Electoral Boundary Commission (EBC)'s request according to its Act 2010.

The census provides a unique source of detailed demographic, social and economic data relating the entire population and its most precious resource of its people. This information is used for policy making and planning, monitoring and evaluation, research and other decision-making.

The census is often the primary source of information such as used for allocation of public funding, especially in areas such as health, education and social policy. The main users of this information are the government, local authorities, education facilities (such as schools and tertiary organizations), businesses, community organizations and the public in general.

Geographic coverage

National coverage: the 2011 Tonga Census of Population and Housing cover the whole of the Kingdom of Tonga, which includes every islands of the 5 divisions and in both urban and rural areas.

Analysis unit

Household and Individual.

Universe

The main objective of the census is to record the people in Tonga at one particular point in time, i.e. the night of Wednesday 30th November 2011 or exactly, the 30th November before it changes at midnight to 1st December. All persons alive in Tonga on Census night are to be included. Babies born before midnight on 30th November are to be included and persons who die before midnight on Census night are to be excluded.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

There is no sampling for the population census since it is a full enumeration.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaires for the 2011 Tonga Census of Population and Housing were structured based on the one from 2006 Tonga Census of Population and Housing with some modifications and additions. There were mainly two questionnaires, one is the household questionnaire and the other is the personal questionnaire.

The household questionnaire was designed for each household to collect various information of the dwelling's characteristics, housing utilities and durable goods, household waste disposal, information technology, income, remittances and the mortality.

The personal questionnaire includes personal characteristics, migration, disability, smoking habit, education, labour and employment, voting eligibility, and fertility. Some questions has age restrictions like the education and qualification, literacy, smoking habits questions were ask to 5 years and older only. Labour, employment and fertility questions were for 15 years and older only. And the electoral vote questions were eligible only for 22 years and older e.g. for those that turned 21 in November 2010. This questionnaire is split into 3 categories and form 3 questionnaires: 1) Personal Questionnaire: for individual in a household 2) Questionnaire For Institution Tongan Residents: for resident in an institution 3) Personal Questionnaire For Institution Resident (Visitors/Foreigners): for visitor/ foreigner in an institution

All questionnaires were published in both English and Tongan and were both piloted as part of the survey pre-test.

All questionnaires and modules are provided as external resources.

Cleaning operations

Data editing took place at a number of stages throughout the processing, including: 1) Office editing and coding 2) Data entry 3) Structure and completeness checking 4) Verification entry 5) Comparison of verification data 6) Back up of raw data 7) Secondary editing 9) Edited data back up

The software used in processing the data was CSPro 4.1

Abstract

The Census is the official count of population and dwellings in Tonga, providing a ‘snapshot’ of the society and its most precious resource, its people, at a point in time. The official reference period of the census was midnight, the 30th of November, 2006.

The census provides a unique source of detailed demographic, social and economic data relating the entire population at a single point in time. Census information is used for policy setting and implementation, research, planning and other decision-making. The census is often the primary source of information used for the allocation of public funding, especially in areas such as health, education and social policy. The main users of this information are the government, local authorities, education facilities (such as schools and tertiary organizations), businesses, community organizations and the public in general.

The 2006 Census was taken under the authority of Section 8 of Statistical Act Chap. 53 of 1978 which empowers the Minister of Finance to make regulations necessary to conduct the population Census. This regulation was approved by the Cabinet and cited as Census Regulation 2006. The Census regulations also indicate that the Government Statistician would be responsible for the administration and completion of the Census. In addition, the regulations enabled the Statistics Department to carry out the necessary activities required to plan, manage and implement all the necessary Census activities.

Census planning and management

From a planning and management perspective, the Census had two main objectives. Firstly, it was to ensure that the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and disseminating of demographic, economic and social data was conducted in a timely and accurate manner. The development of procedures and processes for the 2006 Census of Population and Housing made use of the lessons learned in previous censuses, and built upon recommendations for improvements.

Secondly, it was a valuable opportunity for building the capacities of employees of the Statistics Department (SD), thus resulting in enhancing the image, credibility and reputation of the Department and at the same time, strengthening its infrastructure. Emphasis was placed on having a senior staff with a wide perspective and leadership qualities. Through the use of vision, planning, coordination, delegation of responsibility and a strong team spirit, the census work was conducted in an effective and efficient manner. Staffs at all levels were encouraged to have an innovative mindset in addressing issues. Incentives for other parties to participate, both within Statistics Department Tonga Tonga 2006 Census of Population and Housing viii and outside the government, were encouraged. As a result, the wider community including donors such as AusAID, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, that provided the technical assistance and the general public, were able to support the census project.

Extensive and detailed planning is needed to conduct a successful census. Areas that required planning include: enumeration procedures and fieldwork, public communication, data processing and output systems, mapping and the design of census block boundaries, dissemination procedures, content determination and questionnaire development and training. These aspects, and how they interacted with each other, played a crucial role in determining the quality of all of the census outputs. Each phase therefore required careful, methodical planning and testing. The details of such activities, and their implementation and responsibilities were assigned to 5 subcommittees composed of staff members of the SD.

Organizational structure of the Census

A census organizational structure is designed to implement a number of interrelated activities. Each of these activities was assigned to a specific sub-committee. The census manuals provided guidelines on processes, organizational structures, controls for quality assurance and problem solving. The challenge for managers was developing a work environment that enabled census personnel to perform all these tasks with a common goal in mind. Each sub-committee was responsible for its own outputs, and specific decisions for specific situations were delegated to the lowest level possible. Problem situations beyond the scope of the sub-committee were escalated to the next higher level.

The organizational structure of the census was as follows: a) The Steering Committee (consisting of the Head of both Government and nongovernment organizations), chaired by Secretary for Finance with the Government Statistician (GS) as secretary. b) The Census Committee (consisted of all sub-committee leaders plus the GS, and chaired by the Assistant Government Statistician (AGS) who was the officer in charge of all management and planning of the Census 2006 operations. c) There were five Sub-committees (each sub-committee consisted of about 5 members and were chaired by their Sub-committee leader). These committees included: Mapping, Publicity, Fieldwork, Training and Data Processing. In this way, every staff member of the SD was involved with the census operation through their participation on these committees.

The census steering committee was a high level committee that approved and endorsed the plans and activities of the census. Policy issues that needed to be addressed were submitted to the steering committee for approval prior to the census team and sub-committees designation of the activities necessary to address the tasks.

Part of the initial planning of the 2006 Census involved the establishment of a work-plan with specific time frames. This charted all activities that were to be undertaken and, their impact and dependencies on other activities. These time frames were an essential part of the overall exercise, as they provided specific guides to the progress of each area, and alerted subcommittees’ team leaders (TL) to areas where problems existed and needed to be addressed. These also provided the SD staff with a clear indication of where and how their roles impacted the overall Census process.

Monitoring of the timeframe was an essential part of the management of the Census program. Initially, weekly meetings were held which involved the GS, AGS and team leaders (TL) of the Census committee. As the Census projects progressed, the AGS and TL’s met regularly with their sub-committees to report on the progress of each area. Decisions were made on necessary actions in order to meet the designated dates. Potential risks that could negatively affect the deadlines and actions were also considered at these meetings.

For the 5 sub-committees, one of their first tasks was to verify and amend their terms of reference using the “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats” (SWOT) analysis methodology, as it applied to past censuses. Each committee then prepared a work-plan and listed all activities for which that particular sub-committee was responsible. This listing included the assignment of a responsible person, together with the timeline indicating the start and end dates required to complete that particular activity. These work-plans, set up by all the 5 sub-committees, were then used by the AGS to develop a detailed operational plan for all phases of the census, the activities required to complete these phases, start and end dates, the person responsible and the dependencies, - all in a Ghant chart format. These combined work-plans were further discussed and amended in the Census team and reported to the Steering committee on regular basis as required.

Geographic coverage

National coverage, which includes the 5 Divisions and both Urban and Rural Areas of Tonga.

Analysis unit

Individual and Households.

Universe

All individuals in private and institutional households.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

The National Population Census was a complete enumeration census, hence no sampling procedure was employed. A Mapping Sub-committee was formed to ensure complete coverage of the country.

The Mapping Sub-committee

Led by Mr. Winston Fainga'anuku, this committee's mandate was to ensure that good quality maps were produced. The objective was to ensure that the maps provided complete coverage of the country, were designed to accommodate a reasonable workload of one census enumerator and, that geographic identifiers could be used for dissemination purposes by the PopGIS system. Collaborations with the Ministry of Land, Survey and Natural Resources (MLSNR) began in 2004 to ensure that digitized maps for Tonga could be used for 2006 Census. Mr. Fainga'anuku was attached to the MLSNR in April 2005 to assist 'Atelea Kautoke, Samuela Mailau, Lilika and others to complete the task of digitizing the maps for Tonga. In addition, frequent visits by Mr. Scott Pontifex from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea, assisted to ensure that quality digitized maps were prepared. SPC also assisted by lending its digitizer which was used in this mapping project. The staff of the Statistics Department (SD) visited household sites throughout Tongatapu and the main outer islands. This exercise was to redesign the Census Block boundaries by amalgamating or splitting existing census blocks to achieve an average of 50 households per census block. Various updates within the census block maps were made. These included the names of the head of household; roads and other landmarks to ensure that current and accurate information was provided to the enumerators. Reliable maps, both for enumerators and supervisors are necessary ingredients to assist in avoiding any under or over - counting during