Building a Survey without a Recent Census

How countries can generate nationally-representative surveys by relying on publicly available high resolution geospatial data

Abstract

Low-income countries are also often data poor, lacking recent censuses or surveys to inform policy and programs. Without a recent national population census, countries do not know how to sample for nationally-representative surveys. This brief discusses how countries can generate nationally-representative surveys without a recent census by relying on publicly available high resolution geospatial data. The brief discusses how such geospatial data and sampling were used to create the Sudan Labor Market Panel Sur- vey (SLMPS) 2022. Sudan’s last population census was in 2008, a number of years ago, and before the country was divided. The SLMPS is Sudan’s first nationally representative household survey since 2014 and first labor force survey since 2011. These methods can be used in other contexts that lack a recent official census or for sampling between censuses in areas with substantial changes in population.

This research is part of the G2LM Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries programme

Citation

Krafft, C. and Assaad, R. (2023). Building a Survey without a Recent Census. G2LM LIC Policy Brief No. 60.

Building a Survey without a Recent Census

Updates to this page

Published 31 May 2023