Cayman’s 2020 Population and Housing Census has been postponed to October 2021, the Economics and Statistics Office announced Wednesday.
The exact date is still be confirmed for the census, which is conducted every 10 years and was initially scheduled for October this year.
Although Cayman’s health officials have said COVID-19 has burned itself out in the community, the ESO in its statement Wednesday said it weighed the health and safety of its staff and residents in taking the decision to delay the national survey.
“During this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we continue to value the safety of all residents, as well as the over 450 field staff who would have collected the data during the two months exercise. The decision was taken to postpone the census due to the health risk to field workers and households, and the impact on families’ participation rates among other COVID-19-related factors,” the statement said.
The ESO said it “remains committed to quality surveys” which are used for such purposes as data collection and evaluation, with the reports published for Cayman Islands residents and prospective investors.
The ESO also pointed out there was a concern that recruitment of field staff would have been “challenging”, as the older people on whom it historically relied on were less likely to work amidst the COVID-19 health risk.
“These persons also have historically higher response rates increasing their risk. While this risk is now deemed less than a month ago, as evidenced in the latest changes to regulations that were announced on 25 August 2020, the risk to COVID-19 in the Cayman Islands is not yet zero, and the threat remains at Level Two, Minimal Suppression,” it said in the statement.
Other factors affecting the decision to postpone the survey included logistical challenges in the recruiting and training of enumerators, field supervisors, and area coordinators in data-capture methods.
“As recommended by the United Nations on the population census, the conduct of censuses should be in ‘a normal year,’ to collect high-quality, usable data. Unfortunately, the year 2020 is contrary to this guiding principle due to the pandemic,” it said.
The ESO added that it believes that postponing the 2020 census will not hamper the time analysis of the data, as back in 2009 the census was postponed to 2010 due to fiscal austerity, precipitated by the 2008 financial crisis.
“Other regional countries with scheduled 2020 censuses which have postponed, or are considering postponing due to the current pandemic environment, include St. Lucia, Haiti, Aruba, Bahamas, and Barbados,” the ESO statement added.
ESO director Adolphus Laidlow, in a recent email responding to queries from the Cayman Compass, said the office had also decided it will not continue its spring labour force survey which was suspended earlier this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
He said such surveys are not designed to continue after a long break as the questions that are being asked relate to a specific point in time.
“We will be conducting a fall labour force survey beginning later September. The 2019 Compendium of Statistics is currently being perused by the Cabinet and will be released following this process,” he added.
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