Jordan Begins Implementing Its Seventh Population Census to Update Demographic Data

Hadeel Ghaboun, Amman, Jordan - Jordan began on Thursday the implementation of the general population and housing census 2026, in a process that will continue until the end of October, with the participation of about 12,000 researchers, aiming to update demographic and social data in the kingdom, including Jordanians and non-Jordanians residing on its territory. The Director General of the Department of Statistics, Haidar Fritah, stated that the census provides updated data that helps in building government and developmental plans based on figures that reflect the demographic reality in the kingdom.

Fritah explained, in a statement to Ufaq News in Arabic, that the census is not limited to knowing the total number of residents, but provides a more detailed picture of the demographic and social composition and the needs of the population, which helps improve planning for services and projects. He added, regarding the census that is conducted every 10 years, that it represents a statistically recognized practice internationally, which countries use to update their population data and rely on updated figures in planning and decision-making, noting that the data provides a more realistic picture of the population in the kingdom, their distribution, and characteristics.

The census includes all residents on Jordanian territory, both Jordanians and non-Jordanians, without targeting the verification of the legal status of residents, according to Fritah, indicating that researchers do not ask about documents, residence permits, legal status, or financial matters. Fritah confirmed that the data collected for census purposes is statistical data, and that the statistical practice is based on separating what indicates the identity of the person who provided the data, thus preserving privacy.

Fritah pointed out that the field operations will cover about 24,000 statistical blocks and about one million buildings, while about 12,000 researchers will participate in implementing the census, including about 10,000 teachers from the Ministry of Education, 2,000 from the Department of Statistics, and temporary researchers who have been qualified. The process will include approximately 2.5 million families and more than one million buildings, according to data published by the Jordanian government.

Electronic Experience The census includes an experience for collecting data electronically from a specific segment of families during the first three days of the census, by sending forms to families that have been pre-identified. Fritah explained that these families were previously identified during prior field visits, and individuals from them expressed their willingness to participate electronically, noting that the experience represents a preliminary step towards developing the census process in the future, leading to the possibility of expanding the use of electronic census in the next round.

As the field counting begins on the fourth of this month, Frehat stated that the movement of people across borders represents a challenge faced by census operations in various countries around the world, pointing to the reliance on internationally recognized statistical practices and tools to deal with the movement of individuals during the counting period. The history of censuses in Jordan has seen a gradual development in population and housing censuses, where the first census began in 1952 as a quick and simple counting process, with a population of 586.2 thousand.

The second census followed in 1961, covering the kingdom on both its eastern and western banks, according to the scientific methodologies of the United Nations, collecting detailed demographic and economic data, with the population of the eastern bank reaching 900.8 thousand. In 1979, the third census was conducted, limited to the kingdom (eastern bank), according to the official page of the Department of Statistics, due to the conditions of occupation in the western bank, recording 2.133 million individuals.

The fourth census in 1994 combined the population and housing censuses into a single statistical operation, with a population of 4.1395 million. The statistics continued to develop with the implementation of the fifth census in 2004, which recorded a population of about 5.1 million, followed by the sixth census in 2015, which recorded a population of about 9.5 million.

According to the results of the general census of population and housing for the year 2015, the number of Jordanians reached about 6.6 million, which is approximately 69% of the total population of the kingdom, compared to about 31% of non-Jordanians, nearly half of whom were Syrians, amounting to 1.3 million individuals. At that time, the Department of Statistics attributed the increase in population numbers and migration to waves of forced migrations linked to political crises and wars in the region, especially the Syrian refugee influx after 2011, which imposed pressures on various aspects of life and resources in the kingdom.

Data for planning In this regard, the Chairman of the Economic and Social Council, Dr. Mousa Shteiwi, stated that the census provides a wide base of data related to demographic characteristics and services, which helps to monitor the transformations that Jordanian society has witnessed. He explained that the data includes age, internal migration, health and educational services, housing, and some economic indicators, disability, migration, and asylum.

He added that this data forms the basis for economic and social planning, and helps the government and the council in reviewing policies and planning for the next phase, as well as allowing for the allocation of resources to the areas most in need of development. He pointed out that the literacy rate in Jordan today is about 4%, for example, and said that census data can show variations in this rate between regions, which helps in directing resources according to needs.

Shteiwi indicated that the changes Jordan has witnessed over the past ten years, including waves of refugees, population movements, changes in living patterns, and non-Jordanian labor, make predicting population growth rates more difficult.