EU 4.7m euro grant to support general census

AMMAN — Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury and EU Ambassador to Jordan Joanna Wronecka on Tuesday signed a 4.7 million euro grant agreement presented from the EU to help the Department of Statistics with the 2015 national population and housing census.

Fakhoury said the census will start in December to provide comprehensive statistical data on the Kingdom’s population, demographic distribution, and social and economic characteristics, with the aim of aiding in planning and decision making, and ensuring the fair distribution of development gains.

It will also be a reference for the government when drawing up plans to deal with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on host communities and its burden on the Treasury, a ministry statement quoted him as saying.

Fakhoury expressed the government’s and the people’s appreciation for the EU’s continuous commitment to supporting the Kingdom.

Wronecka stressed the importance of carrying out the census at this time, due to the economic and social repercussions of the Syrian crisis on local communities hosting Syrian refugees in the Kingdom.

The census also addresses the needs of humanitarian actors, the EU official added.

According to the 2012 amendments to the 1950 General Statistics Law, a population and housing census is to be conducted at least every 10 years. 

The last census was carried out in 2004, putting the total number of the Kingdom’s population at around 5.1 million.

Official figures estimate the number of people currently living in the Kingdom at around 10 million, 6.6 million of whom are Jordanians, while the rest are mainly from several Arab countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.

The first housing census in the Kingdom was conducted in 1952, according to the Department of Statistics.

The General Population and Housing Units Census is the largest statistical operation carried out in the country, where huge financial and human resources are mobilised to collect miscellaneous data in order to fulfil various administrative, statistical and executive purposes, according to the DoS website.

This process includes collecting and preparing various demographic and socio-economic data on all components of the population and housing units in the Kingdom without deletion or repetition.