Today, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) official launched the 2022 Population and Housing Census. The launch took place at the AC Marriot Hotel in St Andrew.

Census 2022 marks the country’s 15th Population and Housing Census since its inception several decades ago. The census is considered the chief programme of STATIN.

At present, according to Dr Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service, the government agency is seen as the leading statistical institute in the region.

“In fact, we find it hard to keep people at STATIN,” Clarke added during his presentation at the launch.

He also noted that it takes two years to train someone to be an effective agent of STATIN, to be able to go out in the field and collect data that can be used in analysing poverty, inflation or conducting the census, and all the other operations the entity conducts.

The quality work produced by STATIN is one of the main reasons other Caribbean countries continue to poach the institute’s workers.

“But the Bermuda comes, Cayman comes, British Virgin Islands comes, and they are able to pay a little bit more than we do, and we end up losing persons, more than we would like to…,” Clarke highlighted.

He said these countries, on the development index, are quite higher that Jamaica but they come to the island to recruit people from STATIN because Jamaica is recognised as the home of the leading official statistical institute in the Caribbean.

“Now I want to offer some hope [that], with the compensation review, I am hoping that the ground for recruiting will be less fertile,” Clarke said.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness also joined in applauding the agency for its performance over the years.

“STATIN is one of our very strong institutions, it is the principal agency responsible for developing and managing national statistic in Jamaica.”

STATIN was established under the Statistics (Amendment) Act 1984 on April 9, 1984. The Institute is an agency of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.

The core functions of the institute are:

Collecting– to collect, compile, analyse, abstract and publish statistical information relating to the commercial, industrial, social, economic and general activities and condition of the people;

Collaborating– to collaborate with public agencies in the collection, compilation and publication of statistical information including statistical information derived from the activities of such agencies;

Census– to take any census in Jamaica; and generally to promote and develop integrated social and economic statistics pertaining to Jamaica and to co-ordinate programmes for the integration of such statistics, in accordance with the provisions of the Statistics Act.

READ:

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