Government Statistician Epeli Waqavonovono says there was no reliable collection of data on ethnicity in the 2017 Census.
In a statement dated March 5th on their official website, Waqavonovono says as a result, no data on ethnicity could be accurately aggregated or released as part of the 2017 Census.
He says there was a question on ethnicity posed in the census questionnaire.
However, during their review of the data and methods of collection, they uncovered a number of anomalies in the way data on ethnicity was collected that severely compromised the objectivity and completeness of the data set on ethnicity.
Waqavonovono says it was found that many enumerators failed to verbally ask for the respondent’s ethnic background.
Instead, the data was collected based on the enumerator’s observed assumption of the respondent’s ethnicity.
Waqavonovono says many enumerators also assumed the entire household’s ethnicity based on one household member, failing to account for households with multiple ethnicities.
It was also reported by enumerators that many respondents refused to disclose their ethnic background.
Waqavonovono says fortunately, they have not seen these issues in the collection of any other data sets as part of the 2017 Census.
The remaining unreleased data from the 2017 Census is still being aggregated and will be released in due time.
