JEDDAH, 16 September 2004 — Saudi Arabia yesterday launched its nationwide census, which is to play a vital role in preparing the Eighth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010) of the country. Some 42,000 officials, mostly teachers, have been deployed all over the Kingdom to carry out the work.
Economy and Planning Minister Khaled Al-Gosaibi declared that the census began at midnight Tuesday. He urged Saudis as well as expatriates to cooperate with census officials by providing them with correct information.
“Census is an important project as it is essential to work out plans for future,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying after the inauguration ceremony at the General Statistics Department in Riyadh.
The modern world depends totally on correct data and information for development, Gosaibi said. “The Kingdom’s 8th development plan will depend heavily on the data we collect through this census,” he explained.
The minister assured that all information would be kept secret and used only for development purposes. This time only Saudi officials are involved in the census, which is to continue until Oct. 20. Census officials will be visiting houses in the evening from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The census will cover Saudis and expatriate workers as well as foreign visitors and Saudis living abroad. Saudi missions in different countries will conduct the census on diplomats and students and other Saudis living abroad. The Ministry of Economy and Planning has already sent census papers to the embassies through the Foreign Ministry.
The ministry has distributed some 10 million brochures to enhance public awareness on the census. Authorities have appointed a supervisor for each team of five census officials to conduct the work in an effective and orderly manner.
The questionnaire contains 62 questions related to family, its revenue and expenditure, physical handicaps, house, unemployment, tourism, education, access to utility services such as water and electricity, recreational facilities, procreation rate and the number of births and deaths during the past year.
Many Saudis pin great hope on the census. Abdullah Al-Badrani believes that it would herald a new era of development. “It will give us an idea of the shortage of services in some parts of the country, especially in the areas of education and health,” says Salim Al-Harbi.
Abdullah Al-Jabali said the census must be utilized to work out plans for the educational, social and economic development of all parts of the country. “We hope the new census would help us set out strategic and clear plans,” he said, adding that the plans must be implemented and should not remain on paper.
According to the last census held in 1992, the population of Saudi Arabia comprised 12,304,000 Saudis and 4,625,000 foreigners. Riyadh and Jeddah had a population of more than two million each. The population in other main cities including Makkah, Madinah, Dammam, Jubail, Yanbu, Al-Ahsa, Buraidah, Tabuk, Taif, Hail and Abha ranged between 500,000 and one million. Seventy-five percent of the population is concentrated in the cities.
In the toughest part of the head count, an airborne census team finished surveying Al-Nofood desert north of Saudi Arabia.
Saad Al-Shabanat, inspector of Al-Nofood desert, said the first aerial team from the Saudi Air Force started early Monday to locate houses in the desert. A special survey team from the military accompanied them to point out on special maps the gathering of Bedouins. They fly for three days with an average of six hours a day at 1,000 feet altitude. After that the information is written on a map and given to three ground teams located in three areas. The first team is located on the east of the desert station in Turba center, the second team in the south of the station in Juba center and the third in the north of the desert station in Al-Moroot center.
The three teams would travel inside the desert to the marked locations equipped with satellite cell phones. They would have to spend the night in the desert. They would come back to record their information in the main center and then back again inside the desert into another marked location. By their great efforts the census employees managed to complete their mission in a short time in temperatures soaring above 50 degrees Celsius.
Sulaiman Al-Hudaithi, supervisor of the Empty Quarter and Al-Nofood desert, said that the participation of the military became necessary because of the rough terrain inaccessible by cars.
The participation and cooperation from Bedouins made their job easier, census officials said.
Al-Nofood desert is 64,500 square kilometers in size. It stretches 570 kilometers from east to west and 340 kilometers from north to south.
However, their arduous journey was not without funny incidents.
One Bedouin refused to cooperate and give the census employees any information because he said the military airplane, which was flying low, scared him and scattered his goats. After many apologies from the officials, he gave them information about his family.
Another census employee said a Bedouin refused to give them any information until they had shared a meal with him in the tent, a sign of hospitality that is still found among Bedouins. The employees apologized to the Bedouin saying they had urgent work to finish. He then insisted on giving them a goat as a gift in appreciation of their work. When they stopped for rest, the goat got loose and sneaked inside the car and ate their map.
They were in serious trouble because they were in the middle of the desert and had to use GPS system to find their way to the center and get another map.
In another situation, a Bedouin nearly beat up census employees because they wanted information about women in his tent. It took the employees some time to explain how the census would work to his and the country’s benefit. The Bedouin apologized and gave them the information they wanted.
