Census 2010 Metadata

The Person Questionnaire

• General Characteristics (age, sex, religion, ethnicity, language, orphanhood)
• Migration
• Disability and Health
• Education
• Access to the Internet
• Training
• Economic Activity
• Marital and Union Status
• Fertility

1. Enumeration District: an area with well-defined boundaries that is assigned to an enumerator (interviewer) in conducting a census or a sample survey.
2. Block: A subdivision of an ED drawn by the enumerator to facilitate data collection.
3. Building: A physical structure with a roof and walls usually extending from the floor to the roof.
4. Household: A household consists of one or more persons living together, that is, sleeping at least four nights of a week and sharing at least one daily meal. It is not necessary for a household member to be related to the main family, and it is possible that a close family member, for example a spouse or child, may belong to a different household, depending on the living arrangements.
5. Institution: Collective living quarters, consisting of persons that are not members of a household.
6. Household Head: The head of the household is that person who is acknowledged as such by the other members of the household. For the purpose of the Census, each household must have only one head.
7. Dwelling: A dwelling is any building or separate and independent part of a building where people can live, and can provide accommodation for one or more households. This may be a single house, flat, apartment, out-room, part of a commercial building, or a boarding house catering to less than six persons.
8. Average Household Size: The average household size is the average number of persons who make up a household. This is obtained by dividing the population in a particular area by the number of households in that area.
9. Adult and Youth Literacy Rates: Usually, the adult (15 years or older) and youth (15 to 29 years) literacy rates are best obtained from the result of a literacy survey, and is, in the most basic sense, the proportion of the population in the age group that can read and write. In the absence of a literacy survey, this may be measured “… by means of a proxy variable utilizing the number of years of primary schooling (i.e., 5 or 6 or 8 years of primary schooling equals a ‘literate’ person)” (Wagner, 2005). This report uses the completion of Standard 5 (seven years of primary education) as the proxy measure for literacy.
10. Intercensal Period: The intercensal period is the time between two consecutive censuses.

• Listing of all buildings in their assigned Enumeration Districts (ED) and accompanying required information.
• Data collected on each person resident in that ED.
• Paper questionnaires were administered to each household.
• Face-to-face interviews.

The primary purpose of mapping and delineating EDs was to divide the country into unique and mutually exclusive areas so that each household in each ED was enumerated once.

ED maps:

• Were the basic instrument for locating the dwelling units to be interviewed.
• Identified clearly the boundaries of the interviewer’s workload/assignment.
• Provided a picture (geographic extent) of the interviewer’s work in the field.
• Permits the Census Office to check for completeness of coverage.
• Eliminated omissions and duplications of enumeration

Canvassing:

The purpose of this exercise was to get an updated list of all buildings, dwelling units, households and the number of persons in each household, as well as businesses and institutions and their type of activity.

Canvassing involved the traveling of all streets, roads, and paths in each ED, in a logical manner to locate all buildings and other places where people could live.  A visitation record was produced for each household.

The 2010 Population and Housing Census followed the de jure model, counting all persons who had resided or planned to reside in Belize for at least six months.  This includes persons living in households and institutions, whether or not they were present at the time of the of the enumerator’s visit, as well as well as those persons who were found living on the streets. Each individual from the household or any responsible adult 18 years or older provided that he/she knows all the required answers provided the information.

Excluded from the census were military personnel and their families who were living in military barracks or camps, and members of the diplomatic corps living in residences of the Ambassadors or High Commissions.

The homeless only are enumerated on 12 May 2010.

Nine (9) District Offices were organized:

1. Corozal
2. Orange Walk
3. Belize North Side
4. Belize City South Side
5. San Pedro
6. Belmopan
7. San Ignacio
8. Stann Creek
9. Toledo

• Census Officer
  • provide overall guidance in the conduct of the census.
• Deputy Census Officers
  • provide oversight on all aspects of the preparation and conduct of the census in their respective districts
  • report to Census Officer.
• District Supervisors
  • responsible for flow of work
  • management of field staff and coverage
  • can intervene at enumerator, field supervisor, and zone supervisor levels as it relates to quality of work
  • report to the deputy census officer responsible for that district.
• Assistant District Supervisor
  • assist the DS in managing flow of work, field staff and coverage
  • assist in showing ED boundaries to zone supervisors
  • can intervene at enumerator, field supervisor, and zone supervisor levels as it relates to quality of work
  • report to the district supervisor responsible for that district.
• Zone Supervisors
  • responsible for supervising up to 5 field supervisors and 25 enumerators
  • show ED boundaries to field supervisors
  • review a random sample of questionnaires weekly
  • manage census staff and field operations
  • ensure a high standard of data quality and promote community participation
  • report to Assistant District Supervisor
  • assist field supervisor with any challenges encountered
• Field Supervisors
  • supervise up to 5 enumerators
  • show ED boundaries to enumerators
  • check each questionnaire for all enumerators under their supervision
  • ensure a high standard of data quality
  • conduct weekly re-interviews
  • submit timely reports
  • ensure full coverage of assigned areas
  • assist enumerators with any challenges encountered
• Enumerators
  • assigned to 1 enumeration district (ED) with approximately 100 to 150 households
  • visit all buildings and complete visitation record
  • update ED map where necessary
  • number Ed map
  • administer a questionnaire to each household
  • Review questionnaires thoroughly before handing over to supervisor
  • collect information from institutions
• Editors
  • review 1 out of every 3 questionnaires passed to them
  • ensure that skip patterns are followed
  • inform enumerator and field supervisor of any inconsistencies/errors found in questionnaires
  • ensure adequate descriptions for coding are provided before questionnaires are passed to coders
• Coders
  • Record appropriate codes for country, occupation, training etc. using the Coder’s Manual provided by the SIB

Documents generated for the census are listed below.

• Census Introduction Document
• Refusal Letter
• Census Questionnaire
• Institutional Questionnaire
• Institutional Questionnaire (Head Count)
• Income Flash Card
• Economic Activity Flash Card
• Call Back Form
• Visitation Record
• Enumerator Document Control Form

Census Introduction Document

• Tells the respondent what the Census is about
• Assures the respondent that the Enumerator in fact has the authority to request and conduct this interview

Refusal Letter

• Outlines legal obligation to respond and penalties for not complying
• Issued by the District Supervisor

Income Flash Card

• Helps to get more accurate data

Economic Activity Flash Card

• Helps to ensure accurate reporting of employment status

The Visitation Record

• Record data about the physical landscape
• Number, description, location of each building, dwelling unit, household, institution in the ED
• Vacant lots
• Update maps

Enumerator Document Control Form

• Accounts for each questionnaire received by the enumerator
• Pre-printed with Barcode numbers

Training of trainers 

• 6 April – 16 April 2010
• Total of 33 trainers

Training of enumerators

• April to May 2010
• Objectives of training

At the end of the training, the enumerator should be able to

• Accurately and completely collect the census data.
• Understand what a census is, how and why it is done
• Be conversant with key Census 2010 concepts and definitions
• Understand and be able to demonstrate how to canvass an enumeration district and complete a visitation record
• Know how to correctly complete the Census 2010 Questionnaire

• Venue of training
  • Headquarters in Belmopan
  • Offices in Belize City and all Towns except Benque Viejo

SoftwareTeleform

Teleform uses Optical Character Recognition technology.

Used for data capture.

CSPro

Used as a backup resource for the manual capture of data in the event of failure by Teleform.

Exel Office 365

Used in the cleaning of data.

SQL

Query language used for consistency checks and in cleaning the data.

Hardware

Director General (Statistical Institute of Belize), info@mail.sib.org.bz

 Contact(s)

Director, Data Dissemination Department (The Statistical Institute of Belize),

info@mail.sib.org.bz

Data must be accessed through the Micro Data Access policy. In particular confidentiality of respondents is guaranteed by the Statistics Act of 2006. Before being granted access to the dataset, all users have to formally agree:

1. To make no copies of any files or portions of files to which s/he is granted access except those authorized by the data depositor.
2. Not to use any technique in an attempt to learn the identity of any person, establishment, or sampling unit not identified on public use data files.
3. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any establishment or individual that may be inadvertently revealed in any documents or discussion, or analysis. Such inadvertent identification revealed in her/his analysis will be immediately brought to the attention of the data depositor.

This statement does not replace a more comprehensive data agreement (see Micro Data Access policy).

The dataset has been anonymized and is available as a Public Use Dataset. It is accessible to all for statistical and research purposes only, under the following terms and conditions:

1. The data and other materials will not be redistributed or sold to other individuals, institutions, or organizations without the written agreement of the Statistical Institute of Belize.
2. The data will be used for statistical and scientific research purposes only. They will be used solely for reporting of aggregated information, and not for investigation of specific individuals or organizations.
3. No attempt will be made to re-identify respondents, and no use will be made of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently. Any such discovery would immediately be reported to the Statistical Institute of Belize.
4. No attempt will be made to produce links among datasets provided by the Statistical Institute of Belize, or among data from the Statistical Institute of Belize and other datasets that could identify individuals or organizations.
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