Population Census: Headcount to update Data

Cameroon is taking a major step to modernize national planning by renewing and updating key socio-demographic, socio-economic and agro-pastoral statistics data that is crucial for designing, implementing, and monitoring development policies, programs, and projects. Since gaining independence in 1960, Cameroon has carried out three General Population and Housing Censuses in 1976, 1987, and 2005, and conducted a single census of agriculture and livestock in 1984. However, to prevent gaps and obsolescence in planning data, preparatory work to update statistics has been underway since 2015. Against this background, the 4th General population, housing and agriculture and livestock census (GPHC) in Cameroon will run from the 24 of April to the 29 of May 2026. With this, media practitioners in the Littoral region have been mobilised to educate, inform, sensitise and raise awareness so that the population can understand and corporate during the census. This was during a one-day seminar that took place in Douala on Monday April 27. In this regard, the media practitioners were schooled on what the census is all about. It came out from the seminar that in order to improve efficiency and reduce delays in producing results, while also responding to Cameroon’s economic and security constraints, the government has chosen to conduct large-scale data collection jointly. The approach is designed to combine the General Population and Housing Census with the General Agriculture and Livestock Census under the framework of national development objectives, including the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)....