President Samia Suluhu Hassan agreed that census day should be a holiday to allow Tanzanians to stay at home and participate fully in the census by giving census clerks actual statistics.
Tanzania has declared Tuesday next week a public holiday to allow citizens to take part in the National Population and Housing Census (PHC).
“Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has said that the President [Samia Suluhu Hassan] agreed that August 23, 2022, is a public holiday to allow Tanzanians to stay at home and participate fully in the census by giving the clerks actual statistics,” a statement on Thursday by government chief spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa reads.
Speaking in April during the launch of the official logo to be used in this year’s census, President Hassan said the data collected would help the government plan its development programmes.
The population and housing census is conducted across Tanzania every 10 years. The 2022 census will be the sixth since the Independence of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964. Other censuses took place in 1967, 1978, 1988, 2002 and 2012.
The 2012 census results indicated there were 43,625,354 people on Tanzania's mainland and 1,303,569 people on the Zanzibar islands.
UN data estimates Tanzania's current population to be almost 60 million.