Saturday 19 / April / 2025
MUSCAT: The United Nations Population Division hailed the efforts exerted by the Sultanate when conducting Electronic Census 2020 of Population, Residences and Establishments (eCensus 2020) and the publication of its results in record time amid exceptional conditions that prevailed in the country due to coronavirus pandemic.
On 14 December 2020, His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik endorsed the results of eCensus 2020, which showed that the Sultanate’s population stood at 4,471,148 as of 12 December 2020, the same day in which the electronic portal of the census was launched and made available to members of the public.
Dr. Khalifa Abdullah Al Barwani, CEO of National Centre for Statistics and Information, Chairman of the Census Technical Committee, said that despite the fact that the e-census was accorded the least volume of human resources—compared to earlier chapters of the event—and, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 which compelled many countries to postpone their censuses—the Sultanate managed to carry out the Electronic Census 2020 as scheduled. Its results were approved and published within less than 48 hours from reference date set at 12 December 2020.
Al-Barwani said in a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA) that the Sultanate has set a leading model at regional and international levels in the shift from traditional censuses to register-based censuses.
Al-Barwani added that Census 2020 collected information directly and simultaneously by accessing national administrative records, utilising a methodology known as “Register-based Census”.
