Census takers return to homes that have not been registered. Where will they be and how to identify them?

The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) began the final stage of quality control and verification of the Ecuador Census to recover information on homes in sectors that are difficult to access, dangerous areas, and high-income neighborhoods that have not yet been registered.

Within this stage, a brigade of census takers will visit the homes of various cities such as Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Santo Domingo, Machala, Durán, Portoviejo and Quevedo during the following weeks.

Half a million homes are still pending a census and it will be done in this month of January 2023

The INEC details how to identify its census takers: They must be properly uniformed with a yellow cap, blue apron and a credential that can be verified on the website https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/verificar-encuestadores-autorizados/.

This Friday in Guayaquil some people were taken by surprise by these visits and were suspicious for security reasons, since they had already been registered, in Urdesa for example, and they knew that the census had already ended. Other citizens in La Alborada say they were never the census takers.

With the new visits, the INEC seeks to guarantee census coverage throughout the national territory, cover people who for various reasons were not included in the census, such as vacations, habitual residence in other provinces, new homes registered in the cartography, among others. “And thus deliver transparent, quality and timely statistics,” the entity says in a statement.

Will there be a fine for those who did not register? INEC responds

The Ecuador 2022 Census is an input considered key for the elaboration of public policy and decision-making for the next ten years. The first results will be available from May and information will be released until December.

The census began on October 1, 2022 in a on-line and thus around 2.3 million households were registered during the month that this alternative lasted. It was carried out in person as of November 7 and was to end on December 18, but as of that date some 500,000 homes remained to be registered, which is equivalent to 7% of the total 6.7 million planned, and for this reason the process until January 2023 for the laggards.

The INEC then considered that the main reason why the process could not be completed was the lack of census takers: it had planned to hire 18,000 census takers, but there were still 2,000 to be recruited, and that this problem occurred due to the lack of security generated in the country due to the violence in prisons and violent deaths in the streets that occurred precisely at the time of the census.

In the verification of the quality of the census, it is also contemplated to go to houses that are currently listed as unoccupied dwellings to verify if that is really their condition.

Starting in February, once the data for the 6.7 million households has been obtained, the analysis and processing of information will begin. (YO)