The Preliminary Results of

The Population And Housing Census þ2004

   The Population And Housing Census is usually conducted in countries decennially at most to achieves national needs in line with international recommendations.  Jordan has carried out its last census in 1994 , total population was 4139 thousand. The cabinet has approved conducting the census in its session held on 23/5/2001, finance was provided to cover the census and higher ministerial committee was formed to make exceptional decision about the census on behalf of the cabinet.

   The Department of Statistics (DOS) began in 2002 to put its plans and preparations to implement the Population And Housing Census on its scheduled time, the Buildings and Housing Units Census was conducted successfully during the period from 18/7 till 5/9/2004, while the Population Census was conducted during the period from 2- till 8/10/2004, Over 16 thousand persons participated in the census, most of them were Ministry of Education employees.  There was a significant cooperation from the households all over the kingdom with a full support from the governmental institutions and the private sector which made the census a success.

  Census data records were delivered and received at the main center / Amman during the four days after completion the field work.  The office teams began to extract preliminary results based on the aggregates made by the field workers.  The Department of Statistics is now going to calculate the results again in the main center to make sure of the accuracy of calculation made in the field, in order to announce the preliminary results by locality in its final shape.

  The Preliminary Results of the Population And Housing Census 2004, were as follows:

1. Total population in counted in the kingdom was 5100981, the coverage rate was 96.4%, there were 190 thousands persons which the census teams could not collect data about them. (see attachment which shows the  reasons for not covering them) distributed all over the kingdom governorates with a percentage of 3.6%.

Total population is estimated at 5290000 by 1/10/2004 according to the results of the  Population and Housing Census which was carried out during the period from 18/7 till 5/9/2004 and the frame data which was updated during May and June 2004.  The Estimates were verified through revising the population growth rate which includes crude birth rate, crude death rate and net immigration rate in addition to the sharp decrease of fertility level,whereas total fertility rate wa 3.6 child in 2002 compared to 4.4 in 1997 and 7.9 child in 1976.

Population growth rate is estimated at 2.5% at its highest levels, noting that approved rates to estimate population during the last ten years were between 3.3% during 1994-1999 and 2.8% during 2000-2003.

 2. The results of the Population And Housing Census showed that males included in the count were 2628717, meanwhile females were 2472264 (51.5% males, 8.5% females).

3. Jordanian population included in the count were 4750463, with a percentage of 93% of total population.  Meanwhile the non-Jordanian included in  the count were 349933 with a percentage of 7% .

4. The proportion of private households was 98% of total population included in the count. i.e. Total population was 4998390, accordingly the average size of  private households was 5.3 persons compared with 6 persons in 1994, and 6.7 in 1979.

5. As mentioned before that total population included in the count was 5100981, with coverage rate of 96.4% which means that total population was 5290000 by 1/10/2004. Jordan population is estimated at 5323200 by the end of 2004. Therefore, the population growth rate is estimated at 2.52% between 1994 and 2004.

6. Table 1 shows distribution of population in Jordan covered in the count during 1994 and 2004 censuses by governorates, while table 2 shows percentage distribution of population according to the two censuses by governorates.

7. It is noted that in table 2 there were no essential differences in percent distribution of population by governorate according to the two censuses, as about 63% of the population are concentrated in the central region governorates, about 28% in the north region governorates, and 9% in south regions governorates.

8. Amman governorate remained to be the most densely-populated governorate with populated governorate with a proportion of 38%, followed by Irbid governorate with 18%, Zarqa 15%, while Tafileh governorate has the least population concentration, the population included in the count was 75 thousand, with a proportion of 1.5%. 

9. Urban percentage increased to about 82% while it was 78% during the last ten years.

10. The percentage of the vacant housing units was 22% out of the total housing units in kingdom which means there was 264 thousands unoccupied housing units during the census time, compared to 19% in 1994.

11. The population density increased from 47 persons / km2 in 1994 to 60 person / km2 in 2004.

12. The buildings and housing units, households and persons during the1994 and 2004 censuses were as follows (in 000):

13. Media means represented by Jordan Radio, T.V Corporation, and all daily and weekly newspapers played a very significant role in the census publicity campaign which made this census a success.

Attachment(1):(The households and persons who were not included in the count):

1. Whole households who were outside Jordan at count moment and never came back till completion of the count .

2. Whole households who were outside Jordan at the count moment, and came   back at late hours in the count period, after the enumerators visited them in their housing units more than one time .

3. The households who changed their housing units during the count period, and the enumerators couldn’t count them as they visited them before becoming inhabited.

4. The households  who remained absent during the count period for any reasons.

5. The households traveling inside Jordan, resided in public housing such as hotels, and hotels suites then moved in after 2/10/2004

6. The households who left their housing units for tourism inside or outside Jordan during the count weekend and  the Enumerators did not reach their housing units yet, these households did not come back till 8/10/2004 evening.

7. The households who were absent till late time in spite of visiting them more than one time in different times.

8. Some households ignored or forgotten to include servants / maids and guards in   the count.

9. The persons who were not in their housing units during the census week, and were visitors to other households. 

10. Some households didn’t respond and rejected to cooperate, in spite of visiting   them more than one time by different enumerators.

11. Some persons from different nationalities avoided to be covered in the count,  This was observed  in the collective housing units count at the night of 1/2  October  2004 .