Statistics South African (StatsSA) has admitted that some of the data to be released in the 2022 Census is not accurate or of good enough quality to be released for official or public use.
The statistical body has said that Census 2022 met data collection standards despite the fact that a 30% undercount, anomalies in some results and criticism from independent demographers.
This week StatsSA said that some of the data in the census that was scheduled for release later this month would no longer be published.
The body said that based on a quality evaluation done by StatsSA subject matter specialists, a number of variables and themes will not be published.
The themes include:
- Income and earnings
- Labour and employment
- Mortality and fertility
On income, StatsSA said that the income variable is one of the most sensitive questions asked in a census.
“The Census 2022 data quality evaluation showed reporting-related biases due to the high occurrence of unspecified responses, and the variable has thus been excluded,” StatsSA said.
On labour the department said that the labour module data from the Census will not be released, as the estimates were characterised by reporting and coverage biases.
“Mortality and Fertility showed that estimates were characterised by reporting and coverage biases, so these themes have been excluded. Further data confrontation will be conducted after the 2022 mortality and cause of death data is released,” StatsSA said.
The body said that it will use the five-yearly Income and Expenditure survey, which was released in November and the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released earlier this month to estimate employment trends.
The 2022 Census will be released at the end of August, the organisation said.
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