The release of the results of Census 2011 by the South African Statistician General was widely reported in the press. This was a deliberate strategy to publicise the census and raise public awareness of the statistics, not only at the level of national planning but also as a means of promoting the individual's identification with the local and national communities to which he or she belonged. The newspapers emphasised four particular issues, racially based income disparities, inter-provincial migration, levels of service provision and personal identity. In providing new data-sets, the census illustrated the state of national development and the enormous and persistent divides within society. The widespread dissemination of the results by the press may be regarded as a successful extension of the view that popular participation in the census, at all its stages, is a nation-building exercise and essential for the ultimate success of the enterprise. This extended over a decade from the initial consultations concerning contents, through the actual enumeration and completion of the questionnaire, to an awareness of, and identification with, the results.