– Says it doesn’t provide explicit details by district population
By: Jerromie S. Walters
Lawmakers of the House of Representatives of the 54th National Legislature of the Republic of Liberia, over the weekend, accepted under condition, what they characterized as an incomplete report, provided by the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), as the final report of the 2022 Population and Housing Census.
This decision was intrinsically triggered by the fact that the report didn’t provide explicit details by district population, which is also crucial in the demarcation process, especially as the country is just a few months to elections.
The district report as being requested by the House, is aimed at getting a detailed breakdown of the country’s population by electoral districts.
Article 80 (d) requires that the census result shall be used by the legislature to establish a population threshold for each constituency and also requires that the National Election Commission reapportion constituencies and electoral boundaries within the republic.
With this, the lawmakers are of the belief that an unintegrated report, like what they are requesting, will facilitate targeted development initiatives and resource allocation at the ‘district level’.
As revealed by LISGIS’ report, the total population of people living in Liberia in accordance with the outcome of the 2022 Liberia Population and Housing Census (LPHC) is 5,250,187.
Interestingly, the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS disclosed that Liberia’s population increased by 51% (1,773,579) between 2008 and 2022.
Of the current population, LISGIS maintained that 5,178,484 (98.6%) live in regular households, compared to 50,223 (1.0%) who live in institutional households (boarding schools, orphanages, barracks, prisons, military camps, hotels, etc.) and 21,480 (0.4%) are floating or homeless population.
“Sir, as you are aware, the main objective of the 2022 Liberia Population and Housing Census was to know and make available, reliable and sufficient information for the development planning and the monitoring of such goals and targets”, Lawrence A. George, Sr. the Acting Director-General of LISGIS noted in a communication to House Speaker Bhofal Chambers.
Meanwhile, the incomplete LISGIS report includes the present size and characteristics of the population of Liberia, its spatial distribution and location among Counties, Districts, Cities, and Clans and among rural and urban areas.
According to them, the dataset is disaggregated by, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location, and other characteristics relevant to the national context.
The Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), announced the provisional results of its 2022 National Population and Housing Census. The population was enumerated between November 14 and December 18, 2022. This was preceded by the geographic planning process that included mapping the country into enumeration areas between April 2021 and February 2022.
Speaking on Wednesday, 22 February, at a ceremony in Monrovia, the Acting Director General at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), Mr. Lawrence George, said: “The de facto Population in Liberia on Census Night [November 10-11, 2022] was 5.2 million (5,248,621).
The total population increased by 1,772,013 (50 percent) [when] compared to the 2008 census. Overall the male population makes up 50.4 percent (2,644,450) of the people, and the female population accounts for 49.6 (2,604,171), given a national sex ratio of 101.5 males for every 100 females.”
“A total of 1,187,388 households were enumerated with an average national household size of 4.4 persons, while the national population density is 140 persons per square mile. The completeness of the 2022 Liberia National Population and Housing Census (LNPHC) is 97 percent of the projected population, which is an internationally acceptable achievement,” Mr. George added.
