Palau has launched an unprecedented type of census in the Pacific by including whole sections on agriculture, fishing, household income and remittances as well as health and disability issues people face in the population.
It has taken the country 12 months to prepare for the census working with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The Director of SPC's Statistics for Development Division Gerald Haberkorn says another first for Palau is the use of GIS mapping technology linking collected information with geospatial co-ordinates.
"It provides almost like an address register which most Pacific Island countries don't have so we would have lets say 80 percent, 75 percent of the Pacific population living in rural dwellings and there is no actual capture of where they are exactly."
Mr Haberkorn says Palau's census will take two weeks with a single point reference of Monday April the 13th.
