1 (a) Population data

Students should be able to distinguish between:

Part 1

(i) national census taking; and

(ii) vital registration

Part 2

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the contrasts between MEDCs and LEDCs in relation to:

• The reliability of data
• How the data is collected; and
• The use made of the data

Case Study: For two contrasting national case studies - one from an MEDC (UK) and one from an LEDC (Kenya)

Got access to YouTube on your computer at home? Why not check out my special Playlist of short films that take a look at the Census in the UK and in Kenya.

Click here to see the Playlist

The NI Statistics and Research Agency on their web site note that the reasons why we carry out a census are:

The census is unique as it provides important information on the population and nature of Northern Ireland as well as small areas and population groups. This information is used extensively across the public, private and voluntary sectors and has many important uses including:

• Acting as a benchmark for demographic statistics by providing a base count of the population
• Informing policy and funding decisions, and supporting delivery and evaluation work across all parts of Government, including housing, education, health, transport and emergency services
• Providing a base for population and housing projections, which are required for planning and decision making for front line services between censuses
• Supporting equality monitoring by providing demographic information for geographical areas and population groups
• Identifying and targeting areas of need and disadvantage
• Benchmarking and improving the quality of information collected from other data sources such as administrative systems, address registers and sample surveys
• Providing information on small population subgroups, such as ethnic minority populations, for which sample surveys cannot provide robust statistics
• Informing and supporting research

Vital Registration is the official recording of all births, including stillbirths, adoptions, marriage and civil partnerships and deaths. This gives a continuous record of the population of a country as opposed to the census which really only gives a snapshot of the population.