Data Collection
Data collection is one of the major undertakings in any population and housing census. In Myanmar, this process was undertaken by over 110,000 people, from interviewers to supervisors. Immigration officials and community leaders from each township were also involved. They all had a specific role to play to ensure that the process of collecting the data was done in a correct and timely manner.
Interviewers
An estimated 110,000 interviewers or enumerators were recruited for collecting data. They were mainly primary school teachers, recruited by the Ministry of Education and Township Census Committees. They visited nearly 98 per cent of the population in households and institutions (such as monasteries, hospitals, orphanages and military barracks) and other population settlements to gather information from the people of Myanmar. The interviewers compiled information for an estimated 11.5 million questionnaires. When counting households, each interviewer was assigned to visit 100 to 150 homes in a period of 12 days. They interviewed the heads of households and collected information about any person that spent the census night (29-30 March, 2014) at that household.
Supervisors
Around 20,000 secondary school teachers supervised the work of the interviewers. They were responsible for their field work, and checked the correctness, completeness, and consistency of the information collected through the questionnaires. They also reported on progress and collected the final questionnaires that were handed into the local immigration office.
Community Leaders
Everybody had a role to play in order to ensure the success of the 2014 Myanmar Census. For example, members of Parliament, political leaders, religious leaders, ethnic leaders, state/region administration officers, district administration officers, township officers, ward/village track leaders, community leaders, etc. helped create awareness of the importance of the census among the general population, communities, families and friends.
Immigration Officials
Coordination of logistics at the field level was managed by immigration officials from the Department of Immigration and National Registration. They were in charge of receiving, dispatching, collecting and returning all the census documents and questionnaires from the field to the Department of Population at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, for data processing.
The Figures
- The census required an estimated 110,000 interviewers
- 20,000 secondary teachers supervised interviewers’ work
- An estimated 11.5 million questionnaires were completed