The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that the preliminary report on the 2021 Population and Housing census will be published on September 22.

The preliminary report will contain the provisional results of the 2021 census as well as provide information on population by administrative units and sex; household size by administrative unit, number and types of structures and population density.

In a press release, the Service wrote “This means that for the first time ever, the provisional results are to be released within three months of the Census Night (27th June 2021).”

“The 2021 PHC, is the nation’s first fully digital census utilising technology to enhance census implementation and data quality. The use of technology for data capture and real-time data quality monitoring, facilitated faster data processing and results release.”

The Statistical Service has also released a data calendar which provides the date on which other data generated from the census will be made public.

According to the calendar, on October 12, 2021, another report detailing the geographic analysis of residential access to essential services such as basic education, and primary healthcare at the district level, will be released.

On November 18, 2021, GSS will release its general report which will present summary statistics from selected
modules of the 2021 PHC questionnaire on age-sex composition, demographic, social and economic profile, housing conditions, household amenities and assets, sanitation and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) device ownership and usage.

This report will be presented in three instalments namely; Population distribution by administrative units, Age and Sex profiles and Socio-economic profiles.

The Service has also lined up other publications to be released from 2022 to 2024.

The purpose of releasing the calendar, GSS stated, “is to provide information to stakeholders and data users on when data products from the census will be made available to the public.”

The Service believes this will help promote extensive usage of the census data adding, that the 2021 census will provide updated demographic, socio-economic and housing data for research, policy, and planning over the next decade.

The release calendar features six different types of publications and eight interactive and user-friendly products to be released within the next two years, to meet the diverse needs of data users. 

“The publications are; the Preliminary Report, Residential Proximity to Essential Services Report, General Report, Thematic Reports, Analytical Reports, and the Census Atlas.”

“The other products are policy briefs, interactive census results dashboard, infographics, dissemination seminars, webinars for data users, videos, fact sheets, and 1% Public Use Microdata Sample,” parts of the statement read.