The census reveals some crucial findings

A population census is a crucial indicator for national development planning. Governments rely on it to plan developmental strategies. For example, if there is a population shift to some other part of the country the government would do well to take infrastructure to that location where the population is growing.
Once there is movement of people there is the movement of children. And with the movement of children there is the need for schools and the various programmes that support the national education programme.
But there is more to a census. One interesting fact emerging from the 2012 census is that Guyana has an aging population. The number of people over the age of 65 is increasing. Immediately, the authorities are now taking into consideration the need for social services and the other services that go with an aging population.
Then there is the issue of population shifts. From the 1990s the government has been distributing house lots to people who wanted to become owners of their own homes. That sparked a movement of people from the urban areas to the suburban locations where the land was being allocated.
But the greatest movement of people came when the government began to fashion housing schemes. Today there are no less than two dozen housing schemes around the country, most of them in Regions Three, Four and Six. It surely cannot be accidental that Regions Three and Four have recorded population growth. Region Six, on the other hand, suffered a population decline.
There were recorded declines in other regions and these all tell a story. Region Six is a border location. It is not unusual for people in that region to cross the Corentyne River to Suriname. In fact, many of them have taken up residence in the neighbouring country to the extent that there are Surinamese of Guyanese parentage.
Other regions to record a population decline are Regions Two, Five and Ten. Region Two comprises the Essequibo Islands and many of these were being abandoned over the years. Over the past ten years, more than three thousand people have disappeared from that region.
The situation with Region Ten could be understood. It is no longer the booming mining town it once was. Employment is scarce and school leavers know that their destiny does not rest in that Region. They therefore migrate, more often than not to the city.
There are other discoveries as a result of the census. For example, more houses are being built because of the government land distribution programme. This must be the main contributory factor in the size of households. These have declined from 5.1 per household in 1980 to 3.2 per household today.
And even as more houses are being built the census found an increasing number of empty houses, reflecting a tale of migration and a declining population. We have not yet been able to determine the other factors at play here. For example, we are not yet aware of the social factors at work in the society. We need to know whether our people are living better; whether the academic spread is better and other social indicators.
The extent of unemployment among the declining population would be an interesting fact. Over time, the wider society has been decrying what they perceived to be the absence of jobs. Many people have graduated from the University of Guyana and simply could not land a job. It is worse for those who seek to enter the world of work immediately after secondary school.
One of the interesting findings is related to the gender issue. There are fractionally more women than men. Of course, such a finding is being used by people for a variety of reasons. The less educated among the men seek to justify the reason for having more than one family although he can barely work to maintain one.
The 2012 census is out and there would be so much more uncovered. Already the politicians are honing their campaign strategies.