Counting the costs of a twenty-first century census: South Africa's census 2001

Figures & data

Table

• Original allocation of	R633 055 000	plus
• Additional approved amount of	R215 275 000	equals
• Total Approved Expenditure	R848 330 000	plus
• Unauthorised over-expenditure of	R122 000 000	equals
• Total Cost	R970 330 000

Table 1:  Per capita cost of post-apartheid censuses

	Census 1996	Census 2001
Real cost	R729 million	R987 million
Population	40,6 million	448 million
Households	9,1 million	11,7 million
Cost per capita	R17.96	R22.03
Cost per household	R80.10	R84.36
Source: Stats SA (nd,a); authors' calculations.

Table 2:  Breakdown of activities in post-apartheid censuses

	1996			2001
Activity	R million (current)	Adjusted to 2001 prices	Per cent of total	R million (current)	Per cent of total
Enumeration	222,3	397,2	54,4	577,5	59,8
Demarcation	71,3	127,4	17,5	84,2	8,7
Processing	75,4	134,7	18,5	140,6	14,6
Administration	23,2	41,5	5,7	159,4	16,5
Dissemination	16,1	28,8	3,9	4,4	0,5
Total	408,3	729,5	100,0	966,1	100,0
Source: Scott (2003); Stats SA (nd,a).

Table 3:  Breakdown of costs by year

Financial year	R million	Per cent of total expenditure	Per cent allocated by final budget
1999/2000	5,7	0,6	5,3
2000/2001	69,5	7,2	11,5
2001/2002	744,3	76,4	65,6
2002/2003	149,3	15,4	17,6
2003/2004 (est)	5,0	0,6	0.0
Total	973,9	100,0	846,9
Source: Stats SA (nd,a).

Table 4:  Categories of expenditure

Item	Final allocation (R)	Expenditure 1999–2003 (R)	Variance (R)	Variance as per cent of allocation	Per cent of total variance
Personnel	78 522 395	141 876,346	(63 353 951)	80,7	24,1
Administrative	90 731 777	143 447,778	(52 716 002)	58,1	20,0
Inventory	58 353 815	98 015 125	(39 661 310)	68,0	15,1
Equipment	76 905 356	90 729 514	(13 824 158)	18,0	5,2
Buildings	13 459 111	539 863	12 919 248	96,0	− 4,9
Professional services	392 556 646	491 304 364	(98 747 718)	25,2	37,5
Miscellaneous	41 628	3 008 756	(2 967 128)	7 127,7	1,1
Not yet allocated	na	5 000 000	na	na	1,9
Total	710 570 728	973 921 746	(263 351 018)	37,1	100,0
Source: Scott (2003); authors' calculations.

Table 5:  Improvements on original planning

Activity	Cost (R million)	Per cent of total
Listing during the pilot	20	8,7
Management of enumeration	100	43,5
Fieldwork information system	30	13,0
Payments for additional fieldwork	16	7,0
Training for census pilot	24	10,4
Processing of census pilot	12	5,2
Printing of questionnaires	23	10,0
Census at schools	5	2,2
Total	230	100,0
Source: Stats SA, (nd,e).

Table 6:  Comparative costs of census and survey

Activity	Estimate for 2001 Census (R million)	Per cent of total cost	Estimate for 15 per cent sample survey (R million)	Per cent of total cost	Sample survey as percentage of 2001 Census
Demarcation	111,2	18,8	111,2	37,1	100
Enumeration	305,5	51,7	101,8	33,9	30
Data processing	95,6	16,2	47,8	15,9	50
Admin. support	27,5	4,7	13,7	4,6	50
Publicity	36,0	6,1	18,0	6,0	50
Dissemination	15,0	2,5	7,5	2,5	50
Total	590,8	100,0	300,1	100,0	50,8
Source: Stats SA (1999b).

Table 7:  Post-enumeration survey

Census 1996 (R million)			Census 2001 (R million)
Expenditure	Budget	Variance	Expenditure	Budget	Variance
3,3	0,0	(3,3)	9,5	3,9	(5,6)
Source: Scott (2002).

Table

• Project management	18 per cent
• Remuneration of enumerators:	8 per cent
• Processing of questionnaires	59 per cent
• Publicity	15 per cent.

Table 8:  Employment creation

Census 2001	Persons	Time (days)	Person-days	Jobs (one year of work)
Listing	16 976	66	1 120 416	4 244
Enumeration	83 123	22	1 828 706	6 927
Supervision	16 136	66	1 064 976	4 034
Controllers	1 200	88	105 600	400
Data capturers	1 400	396	554 400	2 100
Total			4 674 098	17 705
Valued as a public works programme				R265 600 000
Source: Stats SA (nd,a).

STATS SA . Census 2001: comparison of original budget estimates, original budget allocations, and actual expenditure, 1999–2000, 2000–2001, 2001–2002 nd, a, Word document. Unpublished

 Google Scholar

Scott , M. 2003 . Julian May 03062003 Excel spreadsheet. Unpublished

 Google Scholar

STATS SA . Census cost improvements: cost implications nd, e, Word document. Unpublished

 Google Scholar

STATS SA . 1999b . Census options for TDD Word document. Unpublished

 Google Scholar