Sierra Leone: President Koroma Launches 2015 Population And Housing Census Provisional Results

President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma on Thursday 31 March officially launched the 2015 Population and Housing Census provisional results at Miatta Conference Centre, Brookfields.

In his keynote address, President Koroma thanked everybody especially development partners for providing technical and financial support for the successful conduct of the nation’s population and housing census which took place from 5th to 18th December 2015.

He described the Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census as the most comprehensive data collection exercise ever undertaken in this nation and expressed delight that the development partners graded the 2015 census exercise as “generally satisfactory”.

In his PowerPoint presentation, the Statistician General of Statistics Sierra Leone Mohamed King Koroma said the overall goal of the 2015 Population and Housing Census (PHC) is to contribute to the improvement of quality life of Sierra Leoneans through the provision of relevant, reliable and timely data for development planning, policy formulation and service delivery, as well as for monitoring and evaluation programmes and plans.

Mr. Koroma said the census has three distinct phases including the preparatory, enumeration and post- enumeration phases. The main census enumeration was initially well planned in December 2014 but was postponed-first to April 2016 and then to December 2016, due to the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in the country.

The total population of the country revealed by the provisional results is 7, 075, 641 among which the male population amounted to 3, 473, 991 and female 3, 601, 650. Mr. Koroma furthered that the regional results with eastern region 1, 641, 012, northern region 2, 502, 805, southern region 1, 438, 572 and western area 1, 493, 252 respectively.

Giving update about the financial aspect of the process, the Minister of State, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development F.B.L. Mansaray disclosed that 74.9 Billon Leones was provided for the process out of which 52.5 Billion Leones was provided by the Government of Sierra Leone and the remaining 22.4 Billion was provided by development partners – UNFPA, UK Aid, Irish Aid and UNDP. It could be recalled that the 2015 Housing and Population Census recruited 16,000 field workers nationwide.