Cuban Population and Housing Census Ends

Cuba will officially close the information gathering stage of the 2012 Population and Housing Census, the number 18 since the first one conducted in the island in 1774 and the fourth of the revolutionary stage.

“The exercise will conclude successfully and on time,” Juan Carlos Alfonso, director of this important research, said.

More than 20,000 supervisors and 56,000 census takers, mostly technical education students, took part in the activity, which ran for 10 days, he said.

In that short time, a 37-question survey in keeping with the Cuban reality, inquired about the population’s demographic, social, educational and economic characteristics.

The count will update the social and economic policy of the country, a result of ongoing statistics management in areas such as housing conditions, water access, employment, family composition, and particularly all useful information on the population.

The work was carried out house to house, while relatives and neighbors provided the data for those homes whose residents are abroad or in another province of the island, the official said.

He also highlighted the collaboration of the country’s population, which has contributed “to the efficient development of the statistical exercise.”

One of the characteristics of the 4th Census of the revolutionary stage, as of January 1, 1959, is that no documents mediated in the research, because the information is confidential and conceives all homes and permanent residents on the island.

This research is the most important statistic that a country conducts, and in turn, becomes the most momentous event in the social field due to its scope, meaning and complexity.

After the final count, the Cubans could clear the question on how much they have grown in the last decade, of great importance for the country’s development, when everything seems that in 2030, a 30 percent of the population will surpass six decades of life.