Methodology

The de facto concept

A population census can be undertaken using either the de facto or the de jure approach. The de jure approach involves the enumeration of the population by the usual place of residence, while the de facto requires the enumeration of the population at the actual place of enumeration at a specific point in time.  The de facto approach was used during this census. The night of 27^th to the morning of 28^th August 2001 was designated as the Census Reference Night. All persons who were in Namibia during this night, irrespective of their citizenship, nationality or place of usual residence were enumerated at the places where they spent this census reference night. It should be noted that Namibian citizens who were out of the country on this reference night were not eligible for enumeration.

The Household Concept

In order to ensure that all persons were enumerated, households were used as the main basis for enumeration, as the majority of the members of the population in the country live in households. For the purposes of the census, a household is made up of one or more persons, related or unrelated, who stay together and share common catering facilities. In addition to the household population, there are other special population groups. These include the homeless, overnight travellers and institutional population who reside in hostels, hospitals, prisons, hotels and lodges, etc.

Cartographic work

One of the most important factors in census enumeration is to ensure complete geographical coverage of the whole country. For this to be achieved, the whole country was demarcated into small geographical areas known as enumeration areas. Maps of these small areas, with properly demarcated boundaries, were produced. Interviewers were then assigned to each one of these areas to undertake the census enumeration.  It should be noted that the demarcation exercise was undertaken within each constituency for the purpose of obtaining the population figure for every constituency, region and finally the whole country. The number of enumeration areas demarcated for the census was 4042.

Census Questionnaires

The census information was collected through a questionnaire, which was administered by trained interviewers. Three types of questionnaires were used. The main one, known as Form A was used for the household. The second one, Form B, was applied to institutional population, while the third one, Form C, was used for the homeless and the overnight travellers.

Form A, the household questionnaire, was made up of the following sections:

Form B, the institutional questionnaire, is the same as Form A except that Sections G and H on housing conditions and household characteristics and mortality, are not included.

Form C, the questionnaire for the homeless, overnight travellers and persons who were in hotels and lodges, was a relatively short form, which collected information on age, sex marital status, citizenship and place of usual residence.