Sharjah Census officials to start field visits

Data gathering for the Sharjah Census project begins on October 20, with field personnel visiting all residences, buildings and other facilities in the emirate.

As many as 300 enumerators from the Department of Statistics and Community Development (DSCD) will be actively involved in the listing phase, which concludes on November 20.

Residents

Data will be gathered on the nationality of the family head, number of family members as well as age, academic and vocational qualification of each member, contact information, and contact language to ensure they receive the self-counting form in a language they speak.

Buildings, facilities, and housing

Field personnel will be collecting data on buildings, including name, type, number of storeys, entrances, and occupancy, whether it is a residential or commercial building.

Information about housing will include number, characteristics, function, status and number of rooms, while facility data will feature name, type, activity, number of workers and employees and their nationalities.

Data confidentiality

The DSCD has called on nationals and residents of the emirate to cooperate with the census teams by providing correct data, which will remain confidential and not be published or shared with anyone.

The Department pointed out that field personnel will carry an ID tag and wear a special vest sporting the logos of DSCD and Sharjah Census 2022.

Following the completion of the listing phase, the self-counting stage will commence, where all citizens and residents of the emirate will have to fill out the census forms.

Field personnel workshops

To ensure the accuracy and quality of the data collection process, the DSCD recently organised a three-day workshop for the 300 enumerators on ways to deal with the public and how to use the department’s applications and digital tablets connected to a secure platform.

"Sharjah is home to expats from 180 nationalities, and some people do not speak either English or Arabic or do not use social media in these two languages. This is why we need to reach out to them, raise their awareness of the census and stress that their participation is beneficial. We need to transcend the language barrier and send them the self-counting form in a language they speak," said Abdullah Al Kadeed, Director of the Statistics Department at DSCD.

"We call on all nationals and residents, families and individuals alike, SMEs, and private sector companies in the emirate to cooperate with the census teams, as it benefits everyone and contributes to advancing the development of the emirate’s services," he added.

The 2022 Sharjah Census was launched under the theme ‘You Count’ in September 2022.

Its preliminary results will be presented to the Ruler of Sharjah and key government entities in March next year.

The findings will also be accessible to the public via the Sharjah Government website and open data platforms.