It may be the Pacific’s largest country, but no one really knows Papua New Guinea population size. That is because the island nation has not been able to organise a successful census survey in decades. And it is latest attempt is on the very of collapsing.
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00:00Going house to house to make sure even the youngest are counted.
00:08France information is for me, yours is the middle one.
00:11Papua New Guinea is holding a national census.
00:14The Pacific nation's last reliable population count was more than two decades ago.
00:20The census was supposed to wrap up today, but the exercise has been plagued with problems.
00:27In central province, materials didn't arrive on time.
00:31We tried our best to improvise and manage.
00:35Hi.
00:36In the capital, Port Moresby, these officers weren't given the electronic tablets they were trained to use for data collection.
00:44We are just doing the household interview manually, using the pen, paper and form.
00:49My census, the census is on a path to failure.
00:54If that prediction is correct, PNG's government will be, in some respects, flying blind.
01:01Poverty data will be informed by that, police to person ratios, doctor to person ratios,
01:08all these other very important indicators that really inform planning for government.
01:13It's also crucial information for Australia, which gives roughly $600 million in aid to Papua New Guinea each year.
01:21Without accurate population data, it's difficult to know exactly where that should be spent.
01:27The PNG government didn't respond to the ABC's request for comment,
01:32but has given census officers an extra two months to collect data,
01:37providing some hope the numbers might still add up.