HCM City prepares for national housing census

HCM City (VNA/VNS) - Ho Chi Minh City is preparing along with the rest of the
country for a population and housing census next month, officials announced on March
19.

The municipal People's Committee has instructed city-level agencies to cooperate
with each other and with district people's committees to complete the enumeration.


According to the population and housing census steering committee, this will be
largest ever in the city considering the rapid population growth in recent years.


Le Thi Thanh Loan, deputy head of the committee and an official in the Department
of Statistics, said 18,000 census takers had been trained for the task.

Loan urged enumerators to explain to people that their personal information was to
be gathered only for statistical purposes and would be kept confidential. The
census results will be announced in the third quarter of 2010.

The details to be collected including gender, age, race, religion, educational
background, economic, housing and marital status, disabilities, profession, and
others.

According to the Department of Statistics, the city has a population of around 7
million after rising by 1 million in just five years.

The census will provide crucial data for drafting socio-economic policies related
to housing development.

The census is undertaken every 10 years and costs around 500 billion VND (29.4
million USD).

This year's will be the fourth in Vietnam after those in 1979, 1989, and
1999.-Enditem