The 2024 General Population and Housing Census costs around TND 89 million, Director General of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Bouzid Nsiri said on Friday, pointing out that the budget needed to conduct this census is being raised, while sector support is stepped up with a view to reducing these expenses. Taking the floor at the 1st meeting of the National Commission of the General Population and Housing Census in Tunis, Nsiri said that officials will start the actual counting of the population next November or December. This operation will last 45 days and November 6 will be the reference day for this census, he estimated. This is the 13th general census to be conducted in Tunisia in the space of a hundred years, since the 1st census in 1921. It will cover 4.2 million premises and dwellings and 3 million 350 thousand families. The pre-census phase will kick off on May 20 and will cover buildings, premises and dwellings. New technologies and digital tablets will be used in carrying out the ce nsus operation, in addition to the geographical information system to obtain accurate and comprehensive data, thereby helping identify a valid database, which will be used in the 2026-2030 strategic development plan, and to conduct the periodic surveys drawn up by the INS, he underlined. The use of new techniques will help speed up the use of census data and to publish it in just few months, instead of spending a long time carrying out manual counting. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse