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The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducted the Population Census 2001. It is the tenth decennial census in the history of census taking in Nepal. The Census was done in two phases - the Household Listing operation followed by the Census Enumeration. In this census, two types of form were administered - the Short Form used for complete, 100 per cent enumeration and the Long Form was used for the Sample Enumeration. Both short and long forms were administered simultaneously. Census followed the specified procedures and UN recommendations. The Census collected information on all resident population of the country based on “De-Jure” count, that is the usual place of residence concept. However, temporary visitors, tourists, resident foreign diplomats and refugees were excluded from the census enumeration. In order to know and understand the pros and cons of the census, this introductory note has been prepared. This introductory note on the Population Census 2001 has been prepared for users and researchers of census and census reports.

The Individual Enumeration was taken during Jestha 28 to Ashad 12, 2058 (June 10-26, 2001). The reference date of the census at which the population is counted is the dawn of 8th Ashad 2058, that is 22^nd June 2001. The homeless people were counted on the day before the census day.

This period was planned for recruiting & training of enumerators. The tragic incident that happened in the Royal Palace on 1^st June 2001, shocked the nation. Recruitment of the field staffs and their training was delayed for a week. The incident had ultimately affected the actual field plan and enumeration was delayed for a week.

Moreover, the political activists disturbed the census enumeration. When the country was ready for the actual population data collection the political insurgency in different parts of the country resulted in failure of the field enumeration - in some VDC, they did not allow enumeration, in other places they seized filled-in forms. In most areas of Salyan and Kalikot enumerators could not go for enumeration. In addition to this, there were disturbances in enumeration works in some areas of Jhapa, Siraha, Sindhuli, Dolakha, Sindhupalchok, Surkhet, Dolpa, Jumla, Mugu and Bajura. The final result of the census has attempted to incorporate the population in these census disturbed areas with the available population figures obtained from the household listing. However, in some areas, where even listing could not be done, population for such areas was estimated on the basis of the observed growth between 1991 and 2001 based on the available data.

The census enumerators and supervisors were mostly recruited from the local primary and secondary school teachers and there was also provision for fresh local recruitment, where teacher were not sufficient. The supervisor - enumerator ratio was one is to four.

The Census Schedules for the 2001 Population Census of Nepal were printed in Nepali language and an English version of the questionnaire is also available.  All the Instruction Manuals for training, filling up the questionnaires, supervision and administrative management were printed only in Nepali. About 200 metric tones of paper was used for printing the various Census Schedules, Instruction Manuals, Posters and pamphlets of the Population Census 2001.

As the census is a massive operation, it requires a huge amount of resources and time for enumeration. No doubt; the demand for more information in the census has increased tremendously but the resources to cater the demands are limited. This has led the Bureau for introducing the sampling scheme in the census. As stated above, for census 2001, two types of schedules have been prepared - one for complete count and the other for sample count. Each of these schedule/questionnaires contains questions on household (HH) as well as on individuals. The contents of the questionnaire, also carrying consideration on gender issues, are given in the following paragraphs and the complete questionnaire is presented in the Appendix 1.

Type of house occupied by Household, Type of ownership of house/housing unit, Agricultural land (housing unit and its area), Livestock/poultry raised for agriculture purpose (and their number), House and land (and its area) owned by female, Livestock/Cattle (and their number) owned by female, Engagement in small scale non-agricultural economic activities (type and main activity) and Absent population from HH (age when left home, duration of absence, reasons for absence and country of destination)

# Individual Information

Name, Sex, Age, Caste/Ethnicity, Relationship to the head of  household, Religion, Mother Language & Second Language spoken, Citizenship and Type of disability if any.

# Household Information

Main source of drinking water, Main type of cooking fuel, Main type of lighting fuel, Type of Toilet, Type of facilities (Radio, TV etc) in the HH and Death(s) in past 12 months in the HH (sex of deceased, age of deceased, date at death of deceased and cause of death)

# Individual Information

Place of birth, Duration of stay at current place (if born outside), Main reason for staying in current place (if born outside), Residence five years ago, Literacy, Educational attainment, Currently attending school, Marital status, Age at first marriage, Children ever born (living together, living elsewhere, dead), Children born in past 12 months, Type of economic & non-economic activities performed in the past 12 months, Duration of economic & non-economic activities performed in the past 12 months, Main occupation, Industry, Employment status,  Main reasons for not working in the past 12 months and Living arrangement of children below 16 years of age.

For the first time the Central Bureau of Statistics has used sampling procedure in the census enumeration in the Population Census 2001. Form Number 2 is sample enumeration and uses the comprehensive range of information required by users. Sample design was prepared before the census enumeration and data were collected according to the framework of the sample design. Institutional households were not covered in the sample. Sample frame for each Enumeration Area (EA) was created during the initial listing operation and sample selection of 1 in 8 housing units in each EA is done by systematic sampling. The census supervisor carried out the selection of sample within each EA. However, Complete enumeration was done in 6 districts and 52 municipalities of the country with regard to their population size. Ratio estimation method is used in making estimates from the sample assuming that the sample estimates are generally consistent with the 100 percent counts and the estimates have smaller sampling errors. The main control variables for the majority of tabulations for persons are Age and Sex. Thus the main tabulation groups are formed from these two variables. The other consideration in forming the tabulation groups is that the expected number of sample cases in each of the cells created should not be too small. Weights are calculated using 100 percent and sample count for various age groups and sex. For estimating individual characteristics these weights are used, and for household characteristics estimated weight calculated from 100 percent and sample count of households is used.  As the estimation procedure have been applied for data tabulation collected in the long form, the Form 2, there would be rounding effects in the cell values as well as in the totals.

# Data Processing and Tabulation

The Central Bureau of Statistics contracted out the data coding, editing and entry work to the private party. Two parties were hired for two different census forms. The data entry work was completed within a period of 5 months. Data were transmitted daily from data entry points to CBS. The coding/editing manuals and the data entry programs were provided by CBS. The data verification was done by the contractor and re verified and supervised by CBS as well. Nearly 400 Microcomputers (Pentium III) were used for the data entry work.

A census data processing unit is established at Population Division of CBS with one data processing expert, two officers and two subordinate staffs in system design and programming under the supervision of the Deputy Director of the Division. For the data processing and tabulations, CBS is using one Pentium IV, four Pentium III along with two high speed laser printers and one dot matrix printer in Windows NT under Local Area Network environment. 

The Integrated Microcomputer Processing System (IMPS) was used for data entry, editing and management of census data. STATA and SPSS software packages are used for the tabulation of the census results.

# Census Result

As of final result of the census, total population of Nepal on the dawn of the 22nd June 2001 is 23,151,423 and the total household is 4,253,220.  The male and female composition of population of the country are 11,563,921 and 11,587,502 respectively. According to the result, the decennial, 1991-2001, growth rate of the population of Nepal is 2.24 per cent per annum. Based on the same result the country's urban population is 3,227,879 and the rural population is 19,923,544. The urban population is 14.2 per cent of the total population of Nepal.

As mentioned earlier, enumeration was disturbed in VDCs, Wards of 12 districts. Population, male, female for those disturbed VDCs, Wards is estimated based on listing sheet.  However, other detailed information for these census disturbed areas (Wards and VDCs) is not available. In total, enumeration was completely disturbed in 83 VDCs and partially disturbed in some other VDCs. Altogether, census enumeration is disturbed in 955 rural wards and 2 urban wards.

Including estimated population of census disturbed VDCs and Wards, the total population for census 2001 of the country have been established as 23,151,423 (11,563,921 males and 11,587,502 females). However, statistical tables for detail characteristics of households and population is given only for 4,174,374 households and 22,736,934 population (11,369,378 male and 11,377,556 females) enumerated in the census.

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