PRESS RELEASE
The Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) informs its stakeholders and the general public that the conduct of the 2020 Population and Housing Census, scheduled to begin on May 12th of this year, has been postponed until 2021.
This decision comes as a result of a national directive provided by the COVID-19 National Task Force, following its first meeting on Monday, March 16, 2020. As further indicated by the Task Force, the SIB’s efforts and resources allocated to the 2020 Census will be redirected towards the collection of data necessary to support the Government of Belize in its efforts to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belize. As such, all ongoing activities related to census preparations are suspended with effect from Tuesday, March 17, 2020. We will therefore be working immediately with our various national and international partners, field staff, and vendors to bring these activities to an orderly close.
The SIB assures the public and its stakeholders that it is prepared to resume all census activities at the appropriate time, and when it is deemed that the deployment of staff into the field for census data collection would not pose a risk to the health of staff or respondents, and that the quality of the census data will not be compromised.
The Institute’s management and staff stand ready to support the government’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts. We remain committed to the collection and provision of accurate, timely and quality data, in particular during this time, to inform the effective and efficient deployment of resources to address this crisis nationally.
