Enumerators Trained, TCI Census to Start this Month 

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, March 6, 2023 – With enumerators in training on some islands and others already completed, the census could start as early as this month. Magnetic Media spoke to Mr. Shirlen Forbes, Chief Statistician at the Department of Statistics over the phone on Thursday.  Forbes was in the middle of tightening up necessary training and supervisory roles for the census in North and Middle Caicos.

“We are currently on North and Middle Caicos meeting with the District Commissioners and providing training to Enumerators on these Islands. A similar exercise has already been done on South Caicos and on Grand Turk,” he explained.

He also told our news team that the Department was waiting for a census order from Cabinet, to be published in the National Gazette, without this, the information-gathering procedure cannot go forward.

“This approval should come shortly.  The census Order basically outlines the date and period for the conduct of the census and a breakdown of the Islands and Enumeration Districts,” he told us.

The current proposal is for the census to be taken over the period of March to July 2023 and the Islands will be divided into several districts. Forbes also explained what the questionnaire would look like; the household Questionnaire is divided into 9 groups and the individual questionnaire has 13 groups, each having a central theme and given a section number.

The census, which is the first in a decade, based on the initial timeline should have already been completed but owing to the late delivery of the technology essential to collection.

After that, the flare-up of violence in Turks and Caicos in late 2022 made it nearly impossible to recruit enumerators meaningfully forcing the department to hold off for several months.

Residents are encouraged not to turn away the enumerators when they arrive as the answers in a Census determine the needs of various communities across the country by providing important data.