methodology
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is the official statistics agency in the country. It collects a vast amount of
variety of demographic, economic and social issues. In its collections, it has to cater for the wide diversity within South Africa's population that constitutes this rainbow nation. Life circumstances, educational and employment opportunities, living conditions and access to infrastructure and basic services differ greatly within the country by race, gender and urban or rural place of residence. Side by side with previously advantaged, mainly white, mainly urban people, are those who had been deprived of opportunities during the apartheid ea, particularly African rural women.
Present day statistics continue to reflect the impact of' the past racial, urban-rural and gender divides, but they also show the beginnings of change, as the policies of the democratically elected government, and their implementation, start having an impact. An important part of the role of the official statistics agency is to carefully monitor these changes over time, as and when the process of transition unfolds.
To enable Stats SA to include this rich diversity of life circumstances and living conditions into its statistics, data collections need to be approached in a variety or ways. For example, large formal businesses can be reached through the postal services. Or though even more up-to-date technology such as faxing and electronic mail, while small, unregistered, informal businesses need to be reached by means of face-to-thee interviews through household surveys.
Ibis paper focuses on the collection of data through population censuses, the methodology of. which was initiated after the advent of democracy, which Stats SA conducts every five years.
In October 1996, under motto ‘Count us in’, I 00 000 Stats SA fieldworkers visited the cities, was to record the number and life circumstances of the people of South Africa, treating all respondents with equal dignity. Details about all the members of the household were obtained from a representative who was either interviewed, or else filled ii) the questionnaire in the language of choice.
Information on the country as a whole, on each province and on cities, towns, villages and other small areas of the country was made available to enable national, provincial and local governments to plan for the future. The 1996 population census also enabled the private sector to know more about the life-styles of the people of the country, and how to target their markets.

Census '96 served as a baseline to measure change in people's life circumstances over time. This baseline can be used for comparative purposes in 2001 For example, the country will be able to know whether or not incomes and levels of education have improved, and whether access to housing and facilities such as clean water, electricity and telephones has changed by comparing the results of Census '96 to Census 2001.
Investment in human resource development starts with education, and using the census for better planning for the improving access to education is now possible. For the first time in 1996 we knew the educational profile of our country. Almost one in every five (19%) South Africans aged
20 years or more had never attended school, while only 6% had post-school qualifications. The province with the highest proportion of people who have not attended school (37%) is the
Northern Province, while the Western Cape has the lowest proportion (7%).
Census '96 enabled planners to measure the extent of poverty in the country, and how this issue is being addressed. Incomes in South Africa tended, overall, to be low, since more than a quarter of employed people (26%) were earning R 500 or less per month in October 1996. Indeed, 30% of the employed population was in elementary occupations such as domestic work and street sweeping.
Census '96 also enabled us to determine the extent of inequality in the country, not only in terms of incomes, but also in terms of living conditions and life circumstances. Poor living conditions were characteristic of a vast number of the approximately nine million South African households found in the country in 1996. On census night in 1996, about one in every six (18%) households were living in traditional dwellings, and another one in every six (17%) were living in shacks.
Electricity for lighting was available to 58% of households, while 29% were still using candles, and 13% paraffin. For cooking, 23% of households were using wood, another 22% were using paraffin, and 3% were using coal. Fewer than half of South African households (45%) had a tap inside the dwelling.
Another first for Stats SA and Census '96 was the parallel development of a geographical information system (618). The census EAs were captured onto a 618 after enumeration and the information collected during the census was linked through the backdrop of geography. This link gives users access to demographic and socio-economic variables, which are linked to a geographical picture of the country.
A wide range of census products was produced. Free products of a more general nature widely distributed in print form to libraries, schools, community organisations, business organisations, trade unions and government departments, countrywide. Electronically, thesc free products were made available on the Internet. In addition, a range of user-friendly, interactive, electronic products were produced and sold.
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In spite of the overall achievements in Census '96, there were many areas that needed to be improved in Census 2001. These included general issues affecting the overall conduct of the census, and specific issues affecting some results. These form the main area of discussion for this paper and will be discussed in detail later.
There were, however, certain problems common to both Census'96 and 2001 that were tackled in similar ways. For example, in order to address the oppression and disadvantages of the past, population group remains a necessary classification variable. This variable was included in both
Census '96 and 2001, but it was based on self-classification, rather than on the legal definition used in the apartheid era.
The language diversity in the country was another problem. But equal respect for the languages of all citizens was recognised in Census '96 and Census 2001. People could answer the census questionnaire in the language of their choice.
In the following section, we give an overall description of the population of South Africa, based on Census '96, 50 that the complexities of the country can be understood. Then we describe how we ran Census 2001, based on what we learned in 1996.
Of the estimated South African population of 40,6 million in October 199, 21,8 million (53,7%) were urban, and 18,8 million (46,3%) were non-urban dwellers. Just over half (51.9%) of South
Africa's population were females, while 31,lmillion (76,7%) were African, 3,6 million (8,9%) were coloured, 1,0 million (2,6%) were Indian or Asian, and 4,6 million (10,9%) were white, and
0,9% did not specify their group or gave a different classification.
Urban - non-urban differences
The vast majority of the South African population is from the previously most disadvantaged group, namely those of African origin. While 61.9% of the residents in urban areas of South
Africa were African, but as many as 93,8% of the residents in non-urban areas were of African origin. Figure 1 gives the urban and non-urban population of the country in each province.
When conducting a population census, the large degree of urbanisation amongst the white coloured and Indian population groups, versus the lesser degree of urbanisation amongst the population of African origin needs to be taken into account.
In addition, levels of literacy and numeracy are generally lower in non-urban areas, requiring special ways of handling an interview situation. The way and pace of life of the extended family in non-urban areas is very different from that in the single member or nuclear family household found largely in urban areas. The age composition is also different across the urban-rural divide.
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Source: Census 96
Among Africans, Figure 2 indicates that younger and older people tend to be found in non-urban areas. But the working age population tends to live in urban areas. For example, almost two thirds
(66,0%) of African children aged 10 to 14 years were in non-urban areas, as against only 43,7% of those aged 30 to 34 years, who are in non-urban areas. But amongst Africans aged 70 years or more, about three in every ten are in non-urban areas areas.
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South African languages
Figure 3 indicates the proportion of people speaking each official language as their first home language.
Percentage of people speaking each official language as their first home language
October 1996
Source: Census '96
This graph reflects the multi-lingual diversity of the country, and the need for 11 official languages. The most frequently spoken first home language is IsiZulu (spoken by 22,9% of people), followed by IsiXhosa (17,9%), and then Afrikaans (14,4%). 'Ihe least frequently spoken first home language is IsiNdebde (spoken by 1,5% of people), followed by Tshivenda (2.2%) and
SiSwati (2.5%). For the population census, this means having to conduct interviews in all official languages. The language combinations differ, not only by province, but also by smaller areas within provinces
Access to education
In South Africa, the differential access to education by population group in the apartheid era is clearly seen in Figure 4. For example, 24,3% of Africans aged 20 years or more, as against 10,2% of coloureds, 6,5% of Indians and 1,2% of whites in this age category had received no formal school education. On the other hand, 24,1% of white people in this age group, as against 10,0% of
Indians, 4,3% of coloureds and 3,0% of Africans had post-secondary school qualifications.
This educational picture should be taken into account in South African population censuses.
Certain people will need to be interviewed in person, while others self-enumeration.
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