One of the first steps to a general election in Fiji is now under way with a population census being conducted throughout the country.
The Bureau of Statistics has engaged 1,900 enumerators and 490 supervisors to visit every household and ship in Fiji this week to find out details of all those people who were present there at midnight last Sunday.
The census will show the total number of people in the country, their age, population movements since the last such survey in 1996 and people who have migrated from each household.
It will also collect data on how much a household may be receiving in remittances from family members overseas because that has become a very large income source in recent years.
Information about the economic status of households will be determined by the kinds of goods they have such as refrigerators, television sets, mobile phones, cars and computers.
While the data gathered will be used for a wide variety of planning activities, the information on the population distribution in the country will be used to draw up new electoral boundaries for the general election.
