Population and Housing Census 2013

The Population and Housing census (PHC) like the previous censuses was a national exercise, it was the country's sixth completed census. The information presented in this census report was extracted from the abstracts prepared by the enumerators immediately after completion of the 2013 census count. The PHC covered characteristics such as population size, sex composition, density and household size at local government area and district levels. This report was followed by detail basic reports that gave information related to demographic, environmental, communication, agricultural and other socio-economic characteristics of the population and housing units.
The provisional population estimates indicated that the population of The Gambia has steadily grown since the commencement of a complete census in 1963, rising from less than one-third million persons in 1963 to 1.4 million persons in 2003 and now 1.9 million persons in 2013.The PHC enumeration was successfully conducted from April 8th to 28th 2013. The census was carried out under the legal framework of the Statistical Act 2005 which empowered the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) to conduct a population census in 2013 and every ten years thereafter. The specific objectives of the PHC included:

1. Counting all the people in the country and providing the government with their number in each Local Government Area (LGA) and district, by age, sex and several other characteristics. These figures are required for various aspects of economic and development planning. The ultimate aim of such planning is to provide a better way of life for the people of The Gambia and to conquer what is called the Five Giants: Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness and Want.
2. Planning for education requires knowledge of the number of children of school age who are likely to require schooling at various levels. The government will be informed on where to build the necessary schools or how many school teachers must be trained so that it knows where the need is greater in terms of the number of children who should be going to school.
3. Housing is a major problem particularly in urban areas where people are often living in terribly crowded conditions. If new houses are to be built in order to relieve this overcrowding, the government must know the number of people living in these conditions and who will be requiring such houses.
4. The government wishes to improve and extend the medical services of the country so as to eliminate diseases and to reduce the number of children dying in infancy and early childhood.
5. Knowing how fast the population is increasing so that the government can be informed on how many people there will be this year, in five years or in ten years' time.