UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27, (KUNA): The Kuwaiti population census in April will not only count the number of people living in the country, but will also explore their standards of living and their social behavior within the family unit , thus providing assistance to decision-makers, said a Kuwaiti official recently.
Director of the Kuwaiti Secretariat General for Planning and Development’s Central Statistics Department, Eng. Khalid Al-Khamis, was speaking to KUNA on the sidelines of his participation in the 41st Session of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC), held Feb 24-26 at United Nations.
Al-Khamis underscored the importance of his country’s participation in this meeting given the value of statistical data collection to Kuwait, whether economic, commercial, environmental or even related to population census.

“All of these issues are important to us, not just to determine the population number, but also to obtain statistics about families, the quality of lives they lead, the standard of living of individuals - whether Kuwaitis or expatriates - as well as the types of dwellings they live in, and the social behaviors of families. All of these numbers give an indication of the level of development in Kuwait,” he explained.
The 2005 census placed the number of Kuwaitis at 1.1-1.2 million, with total population at 3.1 million.
Moreover, Al-Khamis said that statistics were very valuable when making vital decisions “because knowing the standard of living of the Kuwaiti family and statistical details about labor, for instance, helps decision-makers outline budgets and take measures regarding the national and non-national workforce.” Thus, he said that the Central Statistics Department was keen on developing the different statistical categories in order to assist decision-makers in their efforts.

Delegation
He also noted that the Kuwaiti delegation took part in a discussion on violence against women, saying that Kuwait would be collecting data and conducting a statistic analysis related to this matter, as well as remain in contact with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut in this regard.
As for the delegation’s activities, he said they met UNSC Director Paul Cheung and discussed the issue of commercial statistics in Kuwait, as well environmental and population census.
The two sides agreed to recruit the assistance of UNSD experts to train Kuwaitis in this area, he noted.
Moreover, Al-Khamis said that the delegation met with UNSD members from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and discussed with them the decision of the Gulf leaders to carry out a regional population census in 2010.
On the Kuwaiti census, he noted that it was in two phases: first the registered census which was being conducted by three teams over the past two months; and a wide-scale field census which would be taking place in April.

In other meetings with Arab countries within ESCWA, Al-Khamis said that the delegation discussed matters related to the region and the possibility of cooperation in economic, agriculture and environmental census.
Furthermore, the delegation met with representatives of the Istanbul-based Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), and talked about preparations to hold the center’s first conference in late March, with Kuwait moderating one of the sessions.
Al-Khamis also said that the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS) was organizing training workshops in statistics “and we are trying to further activate its role through exchanging expertise among Arab states.” The delegation also had the opportunity to get a first-hand look at statistical case studies in the US and Canada “and we will try to benefit from these experiences,” he said.
Al-Khamis is heading a delegation that includes Economic Advisor at Kuwait University Dr. Abdullah Al-Salman, Director of Economic Statistics Nouriya Al-Saqer, Population Census Supervisor Essa Al-Sheikh, and Commercial Statistics Supervisor Abdulaziz Al-Hajri. - Arab Times