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Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 29, 2020 (SKNIS): Social Statistician/Demographer in the Department of Statistics within the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Mr. Corneil Williams, said that information taken from persons during a census is taken very seriously and that they take every precaution to ensure that the data is answered truthfully.

“We ask the respondents to be forthright and honest with their responses to the questions,” he said while appearing on the October 28 edition of “Working for You.” “Part of that is that they understand that this is for no purpose except for the good of the country and for your own good. There is no negative effect that can come back at you for providing this information.”

Mr. Williams stated that the persons collecting the information, the enumerator, their information is then fact-checked.

“The supervisor has the responsibility to go back to a portion of those households and verify that the person actually came to that household and conducted interviews and that these were the responses given and that these responses are actually truthful and factual to the best of their knowledge and ability,” he said.     

He said that this is then followed up with a Post Enumeration Survey where a percentage of the full information collected is again surveyed.

“We go back to a percentage of the population and we ask ‘Good day, we received this information from you and we are seeking to verify that it came from you and that this is, in fact, the truth as it is known to you’,” said Mr. Williams. “So, there is a multistage process to ensure that the truthfulness and the factuality of the data provided.”