According to the Post Enumeration Survey, the actual total population of Nepal has added up to 29,936,576, however, the official data that was published earlier, that is, population of 29,164,578, will be used
KATHMANDU, JULY 12
The Post Enumeration Survey has found that 771,998 people were not included in the National Census 2021.
Earlier, the results of the census depicted that the population of Nepal was 29,164,578.
The survey was conducted to find out whether there were errors or under-count or overcount of house/households or persons in population census due to omissions or erroneous inclusion by enumeration units during the census count.
The PES also analysed content errors in the selected variables used in the census.
"PES is conducted to check the effectiveness of the census.
Adding the excluded people in the census found by the survey, the actual population of Nepal comes to 29,936, 576," said Dhundiraj Lamichhane, Director of CBS.
"After the PES results, it has been found that the population has reached 29.9 million," added Director Lamichhane.
However, Lamichhane said that in the official data of thepopulation of Nepal, the figure 29,164,578, which was published earlier, will be used.
The PES has found 2.73 per cent error in the 2021 census.
Of this, 2.58 per cent is random and 0.15 per cent is the result of duplication.
Lamichhane said, "2.58 per cent of the population was excluded from the counting process and technically it is not considered a huge part."
Before the year 2021, the Central Bureau of Statistics had been conducting the PES by itself. However, according to the theoretical concept and recommendations of the United Nations, such a survey should be conducted by an independent and competent agency.
Therefore, to measure the completeness and accuracy of Census 2021, the office assigned the responsibility to the Labour Studies Programme, Tribhuvan University (LSP-TU). Accordingly, the university concluded that 771,000 people were excluded from the census.
Lamichhane said the purpose of such a survey is to find the details of people who should be counted in the census, who are missing, duplicated or counted in error.
The census was conducted from 11 November to 25 November 2021. The result checking survey started from the first week of February 2022 and was completed by the end of June 2022. In terms of location, the teams were deployed from 15 March to 29 of 2022.
The PES 2021, had adopted the method and process of onsite enumeration as per the original census. As there were not enough enumerators. The survey area was selected as a sample. In those areas, complete enumeration was done as in the census. The sample enumeration area was selected by considering the census area of 2021 as the primary selection unit.
Accordingly, the country was divided into 8 major regions.
From those 8 areas, 10/10 enumeration area was selected as a sample having proper representation of urban and rural areas.
According to this, 80 enumeration areas were selected.
Among the sample are-as, 50 were selected from urban and 30 from rural areas respectively.
According to the report, all regions including mountains, hills and Tarai were included in the sample. A shorter version of the questionnaire used in the original census was prepared for the enumeration survey. Based on the findings,the results of the missing population across the country was drawn.
The results of the survey revealed that more people were missing in the census from urban areas. Out of 771,998 people, 585,782 people in urban areas and 186,216 people in rural areas were missing from the census.
It included only householdsand their members who resided in the same place during the census and during the survey.
According to the survey, at the national level, 96.2 per cent of the population has been counted correctly in both the check survey and the main census.
There is a slight decrease inthe exact match rate of both of them in urban areas. At the national level, 2.09 per cent of the population was counted in the survey and was missing in the original census.
This rate is 2.44 per cent in urban areas.
In the classification according to eight regions, it has been found that many people were excluded from Kathmandu Valley. In Kathmandu, 4.42 per cent was missed.
Similarly, it was found that 2.99 per cent was missing in Lumbini province.
In terms of age, people aged 80 years or older have the highest exclusion of 4.1 percent, 3.9 per cent for 20 to 24 years, and 3.8 per cent for 25 to 29 years.
Among the missing, the rate of women is 2.3 per cent and that of men is 2.9 per cent.
Literate 2.9 per cent and illiterate 2.6 per cent were found missing.
The PES has found that the literate were more excluded than the illiterate in the census.
Among the excluded, 2.1 percent of the population is married, while for the unmarried, it is 3 per cent.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 13, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
