The Ministry of Planning has set next Sunday, the first of September, as the date to start the enumeration and numbering operations, which will last for two months, in preparation for implementing the general population and housing census, scheduled to be implemented on November 20, 2024. The Head of the Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority at the Ministry of Planning, Dhiaa Awad Kadhim, said in a press conference held at the Authority's headquarters: "Today we are preparing to launch the main stage of the general population and housing census, which is the first census stage, which includes numbering and enumeration operations, which will start throughout Iraq on next September 1- 2024." He added, "The previous activities were for training and preparation, and this stage is one of the basic and important stages of the population census, as it precedes the population counting process, considering that there will be numbering of buildings, residences and facilities, with taking initial inf ormation about the number of family members, and distributing families according to males and females, to be important information on which the census will be based on 20/11." He explained that preparing for this basic stage took a long time to prepare and work, as modern satellite images were prepared in all regions of Iraq, and the regions were divided into statistical blocks, and the workers were distributed to the census, and 25 thousand trainees were trained in the governorates for courses that lasted from the seventh month until today, and there are supplementary courses in the governorates and districts. He explained that the process will continue for two months in all districts and regions of Iraq, and after the end of this stage, the stage of dividing, preparing and training approximately 80 thousand additional trainees begins to achieve the general census, indicating that "there are 120 thousand enumerators and researchers working on 20 /11 to implement the population census in two days." He expres sed his hope that a curfew would be imposed by the Council of Ministers on the census day in order to complete the families' data. He pointed out that the work will be followed up and monitored electronically remotely through the census operations room, which follows up on all field work, stressing that families can inquire through the call center to answer all their questions about the census workers. Enumerators and researchers can also inquire about any questions or problems they face during the process of filling out the form. He stressed the importance of the media and its role in this important stage by gaining support, advocacy, media mobilization and promotion, and launching media campaigns for the success of this project, calling on families to cooperate with the field teams by providing information and data, to facilitate their mission in order to make the census a success, which will provide important data that serves the country and serves planning and development. Source: National Iraqi News Agency