Uganda on Friday began its ninth census, which this year for the first time will use digital technology to collect, process and disseminate census results, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) said.
Uganda's Minister of State for Finance and Planning, Amos Lugolobi, said it will take less time to get the census results than before because the data transfer is instantaneous.
120,000 portable personal computers with touch screens were purchased at $34 million for the census, according to Chris Mukiza, the executive director of UBOS.
Due to computerization, the bureau promised to publish the preliminary results of the census within three months and the final results, or, analytical report in the second week of December.
The enumeration exercise, running for 10 days, will end next week on May 19 and is held under the topic "It matters to be Counted."
"The census figures play a critical role in guiding planning, policy formulation, and program implementation as well as monitoring development progress in line with the national goals and objectives," UBOS stated.
Local media previously reported that citizens will have to answer 178 questions to collect information for the census, providing biographical, economic and social data - information that speaks to their well-being.
Households are asked about the economic activities in which their members participate, how much they earn and save, how much land and other resources they own, and their access to government anti-poverty programs.
The event will involve not only the citizens of the country, but in general all those who will be there during the census period, i.e. even refugees and foreigners. The latter will have to find out their nationality and the reason why they left their homeland.
114,460 enumerators and 18,483 supervisors are expected to participate in the census.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni announced on December 12 last year that a census will be launched.
This is the 11th census conducted in Uganda since the first census in 1948. This will be the sixth census since independence. In the 1969 census, Uganda had 9.5 million people and in the 2014 census, the figure increased to 34.8 million.