Census time in Liberia

Liberians are being counted for the first time in decades. The Liberian government began its National Housing and Population Census yesterday, the first in 24 years. Nearly 10,000 census field staff have been employed, including enumerators, supervisors, inspectors, coordinators, monitors and trainers, who have been recruited from all over the country to carry out the 2008 national census. The field staff will knock on every door (assuming the houses have doors) of every household nationwide to get information from the residents. They will be asked to provide details of births (which could be tricky), deaths, possessions, land ownership (which is often impossible after ownership documents were lost or destroyed in the war, and is the subject of most court cases) and other properties. The field staffs are also required to note the number of residents in every household (again, tricky). Liberia conducted its last national census in 1984 and has depended since then on the statistics gathered by the United Nations agencies and other international organizations. The last census recorded Liberia's population at 2.5 million. It is more like 3 million now. Olly