The 2011 Population and Housing Census of Samoa was taken on the midnight of November the 7th 2011. It counted every person in the country on that night and collected a wide range of social, economic and demographic information about each individual and their housing status.

The information were used to develop statistical indicators to support national plannning and policy-making and also to monitor MDG indicators and all other related conventions. This included population growth rates, educational attainment, employment rates, fertility rates, mortality rates, internal movements, household access to water supply, electricity, sanitation, and many other information. The full report is available at SBS website: http://www.sbs.gov.ws under the section on Population statistics and demography.

Version 01: Clean, de-identified version of the dataset.

The scope of the PHC 2011 includes:

Individuals: demographic characteristics, education, employment, fertility, mortality, internal movements and migration
Households: housing facilities and accessibility to socio-economic services

• Collection start: 2011
• Collection end: 2011

Abstract

The 2001 Population and Housing Census of Samoa was taken on the midnight of November the 5th 2001. It counted every person in the country on that night and collected a wide range of social, economic and demographic information about each individual and their housing status.

The information were used to develop statistical indicators to support national plannning and policy-making and also to monitor MDG indicators and all other related conventions. This included population growth rates, educational attainment, employment rates, fertility rates, mortality rates, internal movements, household access to water supply, electricity, sanitation, and many other information.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Private household
• Institution household
• Individual
• Women 15-49
• Housing/Building

Universe

The PHC 2001 covered all de facto household members, institutional households such as boarding schools, hospitals, prison inmates and expatriats residing in Samoa for more than 3 months. The PHC excluded all tourists visiting Samoa during the enumeration period and all Samoans residing overseas.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

Not applicable

Sampling deviation

Not applicable

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The PHC 2001 questionnaire was developed on the basis of the previous censuses questionnaires with some modifications and additions. A model questionnaire developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Commission in Noumea was also used to standardise concepts and defintions. The Questionnaire was designed using the A3 paper size with the Population questions on the front page and the Housing questionnaire at the back page of the A3 paper.

The Population questionnaire was administered in each household, which collected various information on household members including age, sex, citizenship, ethnicity, orphanhood, marital status, residence (birth, usual, previous), religion, education and employment.

In the Population questionnaire, a special section was administered in each household for women age 15-49, which also asked information on their children ever born still living, died or living somewhere else. Mothers of children under one year were also asked whether their last born children were still living at the time of the census.

The Housing questionnaire was also administered in each household which collected information on the types of building the household lived, floor materials, wall materials, roof materials, land tenure, house tenure, water supply, drinking water, lighting, cooking fuel, toilet facility, telephone, computer, internet, refrigerator, radio and television.

Abstract

The 2001 Population and Housing Census of Samoa was taken on the midnight of November the 5th 2001. It counted every person in the country on that night and collected a wide range of social, economic and demographic information about each individual and their housing status.

The information were used to develop statistical indicators to support national plannning and policy-making and also to monitor MDG indicators and all other related conventions. This included population growth rates, educational attainment, employment rates, fertility rates, mortality rates, internal movements, household access to water supply, electricity, sanitation, and many other information. The full report is available at SBS website: http://www.sbs.gov.ws under the section on Publications and Reports.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Private households Institution households Individuals Women 15-49 Housing/Buildings

Universe

The PHC 2001 covered all de facto household members, institutional households such as boarding schools, hospitals, prison inmates and expatriats residing in Samoa for more than 3 months. The PHC excluded all tourists visiting Samoa during the enumeration period and all Samoans residing overseas.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

Not Applicable to a complete enumeration census.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The PHC 2001 questionnaire was developed on the basis of the previous censuses questionnaires with some modifications and additions. A model questionnaire developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Commission in Noumea was also used to standardise concepts and defintions. The Questionnaire was designed using the A3 paper size with the Population questions on the front page and the Housing questionnaire at the back page of the A3 paper.

The Population questionnaire was administered in each household, which collected various information on household members including age, sex, citizenship, ethnicity, orphanhood, marital status, residence (birth, usual, previous), religion, education and employment.

In the Population questionnaire, a special section was administered in each household for women age 15-49, which also asked information on their children ever born still living, died or living somewhere else. Mothers of children under one year were also asked whether their last born children were still living at the time of the census.

The Housing questionnaire was also administered in each household which collected information on the types of building the household lived, floor materials, wall materials, roof materials, land tenure, house tenure, water supply, drinking water, lighting, cooking fuel, toilet facility, telephone, computer, internet, refrigerator, radio and television.

Response rate

Not reported.

Sampling error estimates

Not applicable.

Abstract

The 2011 Population and Housing Census of Samoa was taken on the midnight of November the 7th 2011. It counted every person in the country on that night and collected a wide range of social, economic and demographic information about each individual and their housing status.

The information were used to develop statistical indicators to support national plannning and policy-making and also to monitor MDG indicators and all other related conventions. This included population growth rates, educational attainment, employment rates, fertility rates, mortality rates, internal movements, household access to water supply, electricity, sanitation, and many other information. The full report is available at SBS website: http://www.sbs.gov.ws under the section on Population statistics and demography.

Geographic coverage

National coverage Regions Districts Village Enumeration areas

Analysis unit

Private households Institutional households Individuals Women 15-49 Housing/Buildings

Universe

The PHC 2011 covered all de facto household members, institutional households such as boarding schools, hospitals, prison inmates and expatriates residing in Samoa for more than 3 months. The PHC excluded all tourists visiting Samoa during the enumeration period and all Samoans residing overseas.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

Not applicable to a complete enumeration census.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

Users' consultation seminars were conducted for three consecutive days (June 8th -10th, 2010) with financial support provided by the office of UNFPA in Suva via the Samoa Parliamentary Group for Population Development (SPGPD) annual programs. For the first time in census history, the SPGPD or members of parliament have become the target group of users to get involved in any census questionnaire consultations.

All government ministries and non-governmental organizations were invited to the consultation seminars and each was asked to make a presentation of data needs for consideration in the final census 2011 questionnaire. To avoid re-inventing the wheel in the compilation of the list of census questions for census 2011, the questionnaire from the census 2006 was reprinted and distributed to all participants and presenters to select questions that they would consider again for the census 2011 in addition to their new data needs. Users were also advised that any new question would need good justifications of how it links to national interests.

At the end of the three days seminar, all new questions were compiled for final selection by Samoa Bureau of Statistics. Not all the users' data needs have been included in the final 2011 census questionnaire due mainly to the cost involved and limited time for census enumeration. Therefore, the final selection of questions was purely based on the linkage of the data being requested to the list of statistical indicators in the 'Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2008-2012' (SDS) and the 'Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) 2015. All data requests outside of the two frameworks were put aside to be integrated in other more appropriate survey activities by the bureau.

From July 2010-December 2010, the questionnaire was formatted using the In-Design CS4 software. It is important to note that the PHC 2011 was the first ever census using the scanning technology to process data from the census questionnaires as a replacement of the usual manual data entry process. The scanning was pilot tested in April 2011, before it was finally used for final census enumeration.

The questionnaire was designed using A3 paper size.

The Population questionnaire was administered in each household, which collected various information on household members including age, sex, citizenship, disability, orphanhood, marital status, residence (birth, usual, previous), religion, education and employment.

In the Population questionnaire, a special section was administered in each household for women age 15-49, which also asked information on their children ever born still living, died or living somewhere else. Mothers of children under one year were also asked whether their last born children were still living at the time of the census.

The Housing questionnaire was also administered in each household which collected information on the types of building the household lived, floor materials, wall materials, roof materials, land tenure, house tenure, water supply, drinking water, lighting, cooking fuel, toilet facility, telephone, computer, internet, refrigerator, radio, television and others.

Cleaning operations

Data editing was done in several stages. 1. Office manual editing and coding 2. Automatic scanning data entry edits 3. Visual verification questionnaire edits 3. Structure checking and completeness 4. Structure checks of the CSPro data files Editing program can be enquired at the Division of IT and Data Processing at email address: info.stats@sbs.gov.ws

Sampling error estimates

The census is a full-coverage of the population, therefore it is not a sample where sampling errors can be estimated.

Data appraisal

There was no post-enumeration in the census 2011. One of the normal practices by the bureau to validate the total population counts from all villages, districts and regions of Samoa in any census is the manual count of the population in all areas during the on-going census enumeration.That information is collected by the enumerators and field supervisors during the enumeration using the Enumerators and Supervisors control forms. At the end of the enumeration, the control forms which mainly contained the number of males and females per enumeration area will be collected and compiled by the Census and Survey division as the first preliminary count of the census. In the census 2011, the preliminary population counts were compiled and launched as the 'Village Directory 2011' report after 4 weeks from end of the enumeration period.

The significance of the Village Directory report is it helps to provide a qiuick overall picture of the population growth and population distribution in all villages of the country relative to previous censuses. Most important of all is that the preliminary count will provide the basis for a decision whether a post-enumeration is warrant or otherwise. If the preliminary country is close to the projected population then the post-enumeration is assumed not worth the cost because it is expensive and it will delay all other census processes. In the census 2011, the preliminary count arrived at 186,340 which was more than the projected population of 184,032 as depicted in the Statistical Abstract 2009. Therefore the decision was made that post-enumeration was not worth it.