Census campaign launches today

The Central Statistics Office is launching Census 2011 today.

Around 5,000 census enumerators will begin distributing the forms tomorrow.

By law they must be filled out by everyone present in the country on the night of Sunday April 10.

This includes people who are staying with friends or relatives, in a hotel or a guesthouse or on board a vessel.

The census enumerators then return to collect the completed forms within two or three days.

The results will be released in different phases as they become available, the first one will be a preliminary population report which will be released in July, around 12 weeks after Census Day.

The last census took place five years ago in 2006.