PHNOM PENH, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia launched the third general population census on Sunday, said Hang Lina, director general of the National Institute of Statistics.
"The census started at 7:00 am today (March 3) and will run until March 13 at 5:00 p.m.," she told Xinhua.
About 50,000 census staff have been deployed to collect the demographic, social and economic statistics, including births, deaths, migration, education and employment status among others, she said.
"The census data is very important for the country to plan and to make policies," she said. "It will also work as an indicator to monitor and check the work carried out under the national strategic development plan and the sustainable development goals."
It is estimated that the Southeast Asian nation has nearly 3 million households with the population of about 16.2 million, she said, adding that the census' preliminary result will be released in June before the official result to be publicized at the end of 2019.
According to Lina, the 11-day census is to cost 8.5 million U.S. dollars, which is the government's own budget.
She added that the Chinese government also donated cars, motorbikes, desktop computers and other equipment worth about 2.5 million dollars to Cambodia for the census work.
Cambodia conducted a general population census once a decade. The 2008 population census found that the country's population was 13.4 million, up from 11.4 million in 1998.
