The Philippine Statistics Authority and Negros Oriental Provincial Census Coordinating Board are appealing to Negrenses to support the population census that will start August 1, a government press release said.

PSA statistician, Ma. Felida Generoso, said the census aims to make an inventory of the present population, like in the province, that previously rose by 1.2867 million in 2010 from 1.1301 million in 2000.

The census will translate to an average annual population growth rate of 1.31 percent, the press release said.

The mid-decade census intends to provide government executives, policy and decision makers, and planners with concrete and accurate population data to serve as basis of evaluation for funding development plans, policies and programs in all barangays in the country.

Enumerators will gather the data through house-to-house visits and personal interview of the household head or any responsible member of the household.

The public is assured that any information gathered during the enumeration is held strictly confidential, as guaranteed under Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 591, the press release said.

Generoso added the same Act provides penalty to any person who unreasonably refuses to answer the census questionnaire, or to anybody who knowingly gives false or wrong information.

She said one item not included in previous censuses is the registration of deaths among members. Enumerators will be recording the names of household members who died in the last two years, sex, age at death, and whether the death has been registered or not.

Dumaguete City, the province's capital, has the biggest population, contributing 9.40 percent to the total population of Negros Oriental.

The median age of the population was 23.23 years, which means that half of the population was younger than 23 years. Males outnumbered females in the age groups zero to 64 years, while there were more females in the older age groups 65 years and over, the press release added.*

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