MUSCAT: Sayyid Hamoud bin Faisal Al Busaidi, Minister of Interior, Chairman of the Supreme National Census Committee, said that the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik have had the greatest effect in making the 2020 Census of Population, Residences and Establishments a success.

Speaking at a press conference held this evening about results of Census 2020, Sayyid Hamoud said that the project was a major national accomplishment through which the Sultanate offers a leading model in shifting from conventional field-survey census to electronic census.

The workforce of conducting the Census dropped radically from 6,600 employees to 74 in Census 2020 while the cost of Census 2020 declined significantly this year despite coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The minister pointed out that the electronic census is considered the first core component towards the complementation and integration of government and private sector data. 

This electronic setup will enable the database users to obtain highly accurate and detailed information that is updatable online, thus contributing efficiently to development plans in a manner that fits with Oman Vision 2040.

The 12th of December has been approved as a referral date for the census, said the minister, who noted that, according to Census 2020, the population of the Sultanate stood at 4,471,148. 
Sayyid Hamoud pointed out that the population in Oman increased by 61%, compared to Census 2010, when the population of the Sultanate was 2,773,479.

The number of Omanis increased by 40% to 2,731,456 from 1,957,336 in Census 2010, said the minister, adding that the number of expatriates in Census 2020 increased by 113% to 1,739,692 from 816,143 in Census 2010.
Sayyid Hamoud said that the number of Omani families increased a rate of 55% to 406,303 in Census 2020, compared to 260,120 in Census 2010. Muscat maintained highest population density in 1,302,440 an increase of 68% over Census 2010 figures (775,878).

The number of residential and non-residential units also increased by 79% in Census 2020 to 1,312,327 as against Census 2010 figures (731,968), said Sayyid Hamoud, adding that the number of profit and non-profit establishments stood at 307,462 compared to 115,851 in Census 2010 a rise by 165%.

Then, Sayyid Hamoud inaugurated Census 2020 Portal, considered a treasure of demographical, social and economic information that benefits establishments, individuals and researches.
Meanwhile, Dr. Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Barwani, CEO of the Statistics and Information Centre, Head of the Technical Committee of Census 2020, said that this year’s census is considered the largest statistical task ever conducted by the Sultanate and that the Sultanate the only country in the world that combined the three categories of (population, residences and establishments) in a single census. Oman will continue to conduct such censuses as part of its regional and international obligations, said al-Barwani.

Zayed bin Khalifa Al Harrasi, In-charge of tasks of Director-General of Census 2020, said that many factors contributed to Oman’s success in implementing register-based enumeration. The factors included the readily available electronic government, the legal framework of the census and the existence of national cadres, well-versed in statistics and data analysis.

As many as 560 million registers were studied, analyzed and processed in Census 2020 laboratories, said Al Harrasi.