Jordan begins implementing its seventh population census to update its demographic data

Hadeel Ghabboun Amman, Jordan - On Thursday, Jordan began implementing the 2026 General Population and Housing Census, in a process that will continue until the end of October, with the participation of about 12,000 male and female researchers, with the aim of updating population, demographic and social data in the Kingdom, including Jordanians and non-Jordanians residing in its territory. Director General of the Department of General Statistics, Haider Freihat, said that the census provides up-to-date data that helps build government and development plans based on numbers that reflect the population reality in the Kingdom.

Freihat explained, in a statement to Ofek News in Arabic, that the census is not limited to knowing the total number of residents, but rather provides a more detailed picture of the demographic and social composition and needs of the population, which helps improve planning for services and projects. Regarding the census, which is conducted every 10 years, Fraihat added that it represents an internationally recognized statistical practice, and countries use it to update their population data and rely on modern numbers in planning and decision-making, indicating that the data provides a more realistic picture of the population in the Kingdom, its distribution and characteristics.

The census includes all residents of Jordanian territory, both Jordanians and non-Jordanians, without the process aiming to verify the legal status of residents, according to Fraihat, indicating that researchers do not ask about documents, residence permits, their legal status, or financial affairs. Fraihat stressed that the data collected for the purposes of the census is statistical data, and that statistical practice is based on separating what indicates the identity of the person who provided the data, in a way that maintains privacy.

Freihat pointed out that the field operations will cover about 24,000 statistical blocks and about a million buildings, while about 12,000 male and female researchers will participate in implementing the census, including about 10,000 male and female teachers from the Ministry of Education, 2,000 cadres from the Department of Statistics, and temporary researchers who have been qualified. The operation will include approximately 2.5 million families and more than one million buildings, according to data published by the Jordanian government.

An electronic experiment: The census includes an experiment to collect data electronically from a specific segment of households during the first three days from the beginning of the census, by sending questionnaires to previously identified households. Freihat explained that these families were previously identified during previous field visits, and some of them expressed their willingness to participate electronically, indicating that the experience represents a preliminary step towards developing the census process in the future, leading to the possibility of expanding the use of the electronic census in the next session.

As the field count begins on the fourth of this month, Freihat said that the movement of population across borders represents a challenge faced by census operations in various countries of the world, pointing to the adoption of internationally recognized statistical practices and tools to deal with the movement of people during the counting period. History of censuses Throughout its history, Jordan has witnessed a gradual development in population and housing censuses, as the first census was launched in 1952 as a quick and simple counting process, with the population reaching 586.2 thousand people.

The second census followed in 1961, covering the Kingdom with its eastern and western banks, according to the scientific methodologies of the United Nations, and collecting detailed demographic and economic data, while the population of the eastern bank reached 900.8 thousand people. In 1979, the third census was conducted limited to the Kingdom (the East Bank), according to the official page of the Department of General Statistics, due to the conditions of the occupation in the West Bank, and recorded 2.133 million people.

The fourth census in 1994 witnessed the merging of the population and housing censuses into one statistical process, with the population reaching 4.1395 million people. Statistics continued to develop with the implementation of the fifth census in 2004, in which the population reached about 5.1 million people, then the sixth census in 2015, in which the population reached about 9.5 million people.

According to the results of the General Population and Housing Census for 2015, the number of Jordanians reached about 6.6 million people, or approximately 69% of the total population of the Kingdom, compared to about 31% of non-Jordanians, about half of whom were Syrians, amounting to 1.3 million people. The Department of Statistics then attributed the rise in population and immigration numbers to waves of forced migrations linked to political crises and wars in the region, especially Syrian refugees after 2011. These developments imposed pressure on various aspects of life and resources in the Kingdom.

Data for planning: For his part, the President of the Economic and Social Council, Dr. Musa Shteiwi, said that the census provides a broad base of data related to population and demographic characteristics and services, which helps monitor the transformations witnessed by Jordanian society. He explained that the data includes age, internal migration, health and education services, housing, some economic indicators, disability, migration and asylum.

He added that this data forms the basis for economic and social planning, and helps the government and the Council in reviewing policies and planning for the next stage, and also allows resources to be directed to the areas most in need of development. He pointed out that the illiteracy rate in Jordan today, for example, is about 4%, and said that census data can show variations in this percentage between regions, which helps direct resources according to needs.

Shteiwi pointed out that the changes that Jordan has witnessed over the past ten years, including waves of refugees, population movements, changing patterns of living and non-Jordanian employment, make predicting population growth rates more difficult.