Abu Dhabi census begins next week

The Government starts to compile a detailed picture of Abu Dhabi households and businesses in the largest statistical operation ever carried out in the emirate.

ABU DHABI // Starting next week, Abu Dhabi residents can expect a knock on their doors as the Government begins to compile a detailed picture of all households and businesses in the emirate. In the largest statistical operation ever carried out in the emirate, workers for the Statistics Center - Abu Dhabi will survey all buildings in Abu Dhabi between Sunday and June 10, Butti al Qubaisi, the director general of the centre, announced today. The two-month door-to-door operation will precede the final stage of the project later this year, which will gather a detailed picture of the emirate on October 10. It will compile a snapshot of health, education, ethnicity, building use and economic activity, Mr al Qubaisi said. During the next two months companies will be asked to fill out a form giving information on its type of business, ownership, licence number, number of employees and revenue. Residents will be asked to give basic information on how many people live in a unit and whether they are Emirati or expatriate. Once this information has been gathered, as many as 2,000 trained staff will return to buildings between October 3 and October 20, asking detailed questions on inhabitants - from their education levels and where their children go to school to what telecoms provider they use and how healthy they are. "Our objective is to build a modern database to serve decision-makers, businesses and researchers," Mr al Qubaisi said. Statistics obtained through the research, called "Updating of Buildings, Housing, Households and Establishments Frames", may be used by federal authorities producing the national census that is due to be published this year.