How Saudi Arabia is using census data to drive policy changes

Originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and postponed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 General Housing and Population Census is the fifth nationwide census in the history of Saudi Arabia. Mandated in 2017, the census is a key step towards achieving the objectives of Vision 2030, particularly with regards to the acceleration of socio-economic development through improved housing, education, health care and employment policies.

At an operational level, the 2022 census is characterised by an elevated use of technology, and broad involvement from the population and government entities. These two factors have led to increased efficiency in the implementation of the census campaign, and will help to unlock the potential for the utilisation of census data and insights in policymaking.

Digitalisation

The 2022 census is distinguished from previous editions by the use of technology. This includes the use of geographic information systems for address canvasing, digital tools for data collection and processing, and advanced IT applications for data analysis. This enhanced technological footprint is the result of the Kingdom’s increased technical capabilities, with in-house specialists at the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) supporting the self-enumeration process and the tools used by enumerators on the ground. GaStat also developed the dashboard for operations monitoring, which has enabled thorough processes for project management and quality checking, and has been commended by experts from the UN Development Programme.

There has been collaboration with the private sector to deploy solutions for data exploitation and presentation. For example, GaStat partnered with the Estonian company Nortal, a provider of digitalisation services with a significant international presence, to create a data processing and analysis system, establish the future population register and apply usability standards across the planned dissemination systems.

Social Participation

GaStat took a whole-of-society approach to the 2022 census, exemplified by Kingdom’s self-enumeration campaign, which took place in May 2022. This campaign saw over 30% of households complete the survey through a variety of offline and online channels, well above the 20% target set by the authorities. As a result, the effectiveness and efficiency of the enumeration process was improved, reducing the burden on GaStat’s field enumerators in the process.

The participation of women at all levels of the census campaign is also a major achievement. According to Fatimah Aloef, GaStat’s acting vice-president for statistics, female employees at GaStat have contributed over 30,000 working hours to preparation and implementation and the rate of female participation in enumeration teams was over 20%. From a government perspective, more than 25 government bodies are involved in the census, including the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority. This is notable, given that the census seeks to provide richer insights to policymakers beyond the core areas of the previous census, which focused on population and housing. To this end, a high level of inter-ministerial data sharing in areas such as health care, education and employment has been achieved.

Dissemination 

Once analytical work has been completed, GaStat will launch a newly designed portal for data dissemination. This portal will be populated by three types of statistical products. First, the core statistical data will be accessible to all registered users in the form of static tables. Second, a series of issue-focused reports will be published to present insights directly relevant to specific public policy areas such as housing, education, health care and employment. Third, functionalities will be introduced to allow for the creation of custom-built databases so that advanced research needs can be met.