Technical Notes on the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (CPH)

Release Date:

Saturday, May 5, 2012

GENERAL BACKGROUND

The 2000 Census of Population and Housing otherwise known as Census 2000 is the 11^th census of population and the 5th census of Housing to be undertaken in the Philippines since 1903. Prior to this period, in 1570 to 1800s, the population count was determined largely by estimates rather than actual counts. In particular, the population was based on the number of tributes comprising an encomienda in 1591. In the succeeding years, when the people were distributed by parish among religious orders, the population estimates depended on church records (baptism, marriages and burials) and were limited to the Christian population.

The first official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1878 by the Spanish government, followed by the census of 1888 and 1898.

Census 2000 was designed to take an inventory of the total population and housing units in the Philippines and to collect information about their characteristics. The census of population is the source of information on the size and distribution of the population as well as information about the demographic, social, economic and cultural characteristics. The census of housing, on the other hand, provides information on the supply of housing units, their structural characteristics and facilities which have bearing on the maintenance of privacy, health and the development of normal family living conditions. These information are vital for making rational plans and programs for national and local development.

OBJECTIVES

General Objectives

The Census 2000 aimed to provide government planners, policy makers and administrators with data on which to base their social and economic development plans and programs.

Specific Objectives

Specifically, the Census 2000 aimed to:

obtain comprehensive data on the size, composition and distribution of the population of the Philippines;
take stock of the housing units existing in the country and to get information about their geographic location, structural characteristics, available facilities, etc.;
gather migration and fertility data;
classify the population according to ethnic origin and religious affiliations and determine their geographic distribution; and
gather data on usual occupation and industry.

DATE AND TIME OF REFERENCE

May 1, 2000 was designated as the Census Day on which all information collected about the population and about living quarters, except for a few, were counted.

VARIABLES IN THE CENSUS 2000

In the Census 2000, there were basically two types of questionnaires used in gathering information about the household members. These were CPH Form 2 or the Common Household Questionnaire and the CPH Form 3 or the Sample Household Questionnaire. CPH Form 2 contained 24 questions. It could be used to generate statistics for the smallest political subdivision, the barangay. CPH Form 3 contained 53 questions ranging from residence in various year, ability to speak Filipino/English to tenure status of housing unit and housing conveniences. It could generate data only at the provincial or city/municipality levels.

Below are the variables collected using the respective census questionnaires:

VARIABLES	CPH FORM 2	CPH FORM 3
POPULATION
1) Name	/	/
2) Overseas Worker	/	/
3) Relationship to the Household Head	/	/
4) Family Nucleus	/	/
5) Age	/	/
6) Sex	/	/
7) Marital Status	/	/
8) Religious Affiliation	/	/
9) Citizenship	/	/
10) Disability	/	/
11) Mother Tongue	/	/
12) Residence 5 Years Ago		/
13) Residence 10 Years Ago		/
14) Residence 5 Years From Now		/
15) Language
a) Filipino		/
b) English		/
16) Literacy		/
17) School Attendance		/
18) Place of School		/
19) Type of School (Public or private)		/
20) Highest Educational Attainment	/	/
21) Usual Activity/Occupation		/
22) Kind of Business/Industry		/
23) Place of Work		/
24) Fertility		/
a) No. of Children Ever Born		/
b) No. of Children Still living		/
c) No. of Children Born Alive from May 1, 1999 to April 30, 2000		/
d) Age at First Marriage		/

HOUSING
1) Type of Building/House	/	/
2) Construction Material of the Roof	/	/
3) Construction Material of the Outer Walls	/	/
4) State of Repair	/	/
5) Year of Building/House was Built	/	/
6) Floor Area of the Housing Unit	/	/
7) Fuel for Lighting (Source of Lighting)		/
8) Fuel for Cooking		/
9) Main Source of Water Supply
a. Drinking and or Cooking		/
b. Laundry and or Bathing		/
10) Tenure Status of the Housing Unit		/
11) Acquisition of Housing Unit		/
12) Source of Financing		/
13) Tenure Status of the Lot	/	/
14) Monthly Rental of Housing Unit and/or Lot		/
15) Kind of Toilet Facility		/
16) Usual Manner of Garbage Disposal		/
17) Presence of Household Conveniences		/
18) Land Ownership		/
19) Language/dialect generally spoken at home		/

TERMS/CONCEPTS	DEFINITION
Building	A building is defined as any structure built, designed or intended for the enclosure, shelter or protection of any person, animal or property. It consists of one or more rooms and/or other spaces, covered by a roof and usually enclosed within external walls or with common dividing walls with adjacent buildings, which usually extend from the foundation to the roof. For purposes of the census of population and housing, only those buildings which contain living quarters, whether occupied or vacant, are to be listed. Living quarters are structurally separate and independent places of abode. They may: have been constructed, built, converted or arranged for human habitation, provided that they are not at the time of the census used wholly for other purposes; or actually being used as living quarters at the time of the census, although not intended for habitation.
Housing Unit	A housing unit is a structurally separate and independent place of abode which, by the way it has been constructed, converted, or arranged, is intended for habitation by one or more households. Structures or parts of structures which are not intended for habitation, such as commercial, industrial, and agricultural buildings, or natural and man-made shelters such as caves, boats, abandoned trucks, culverts, etc., but which are used as living quarters by households, are also considered as housing units. The place of abode of an institutional population is not called a housing unit, it is referred to as institutional living quarter. A portion of a building (a room or a group of rooms) qualifies as a separate housing unit if it meets both the following requirements: Separateness - the portion of a building must have facilities for sleeping, preparing and taking meals, and its occupants must be isolated from other households in the building by means of walls or permanent partitions; and; Direct access - the portion of the building can be accessed directly from the outside of the building. That is, the occupants can come in or go out of the portion of the building without passing through anybody else’s premises from the street, pathway, alley, callejon, road, yard, catwalk, public or communal staircase, passage, gallery, grounds or through a common hall.
Household	A household is a social unit consisting of a person living alone or a group of persons who sleep in the same housing unit and have a common arrangement in the preparation and consumption of food.
Household Membership	In determining household membership, a basic criterion is the usual place of residence or the place where the person usually resides. This may be the same or different from the place where he is found at the time of the census. As a rule, it is the place where he usually sleeps.
Institutional Living Quarters	Institutional living quarters are structurally separate and independent places of abode intended for habitation by large groups of individuals. Such quarters usually have certain common facilities such as kitchen and dining rooms, toilet and bath, and lounging areas which are shared by the occupants. The occupants of institutional living quarters are usually subject to a common authority or management or are bound by either a common public objective or a common personal interest.
Institutional Population	Institutional population comprises persons who are found living in institutional living quarters. They may have their own families or households elsewhere but at the time of the census, they are committed or confined in institutions, or they live in institutional living quarters and are usually subject to a common authority or management, or are bound by either a common public objective or a common personal interest.

CENSUS VARIABLES AND THEIR USE

VARIABLE	USE
Overseas Worker	Data on the number of overseas worker provide an estimate of the labor force in foreign employment.
Family Nucleus	Data on family nucleus identify the number of families living together as one household.
Age as of Last Birthday, Sex, and Marital Status	Age, sex and marital status are essential for inclusion in a census for the purposes of analyzing factors of population changes and preparing population estimates and forecasts. Information on these topics is also needed for actuarial analysis of probability of survival and other related life-table functions. Gender-disaggregated data is of prime importance in demographic and socio-economic studies. Separate data for males and females are important for the analysis of other types of data, and for the evaluation of the completeness and accuracy of the census counts of population.
Religious Affiliation	Data on religious are required for the planning of religion-related and religion-sponsored activities. They may also be used for an examination of ethnic characteristics of the population.
Citizenship	The collection of data on citizenship permits the classification of the population into (a) citizens and (b) aliens. Data on citizenship are valuable in the study of problems relating to the legal status and civil rights of immigrants. A person’s citizenship depends on the country to which he owes legal allegiance or where he exercises the right of suffrage.
Disability	Data on disability will enable planners to prepare plans for rehabilitation, education development and preventive programs.
Residence 5 Years Ago	Data residence 5 years ago are vital for projects concerning housing and industrial development. Estimates of migration are needed for preparing population projections necessary for planning and policy purposes. Distribution of internal migration at certain geographic level will be better judged as to its implications to social changes given a detailed analysis of the volume and trend of internal migration.
Residence 10 Years Ago	Data on residence 10 years ago are collected to fill the missing information on migration between 1990 and 1995.
Language	Knowledge on the ability of the population to speak a language or dialect is important in a country like the Philippines since more than one dialect/language are used as teaching media in schools. Moreover, such data serve as input to studies on communication and education of linguistic minorities.
Literacy	Data on literacy provide an important indication of the capability of the nation for economic, social and cultural development. Such data serve as guide to planners concerned with the policies for the development of the educational system.
School Attendance	Data on school attendance provide a description of the school-age population actually in school. The proportion of the school-age population, which is able to take advantage of the educational system, is necessary in the assessment of the adequacy of the educational system of the country.
Place of School	The purpose of this question is to determine the number of students who study in places outside the city or municipality where they are usually residing. Such data are vital in transport planning i.e., in the analysis of trip patterns, forecasting public transportation patronage and projecting fuel usage and the number of non-resident students in the receiving municipality/city.
Highest Educational Attainment	Data on highest educational attainment furnish material for a comparison of the present educational equipment of the adult population with the present and anticipated future requirements of manpower for various types of economic activities.
Usual Activity/ Occupation	Data on occupation are essential for analyzing the growth, composition and distribution of the work force. They provide information on socio-economic status of the population which is essential in planning the necessary training programs aimed at full and effective utilization of the country’s human resources. Through this question we can determine whether a person is a gainful worker or is a non-gainful worker.
Kind of Business/ Industry	Data on industry provide information on the level and trend of industrialization and on important aspects of the country’s potential for economic development.
Place of Work	Data on the place of work determine the number of workers who commute to places outside the city/municipality where they are usually residing for the purpose of working.
No. of Children Ever Born	Data on the number of children ever born alive to a particular woman is an aggregate measure of her lifetime fertility experience up to the moment the data are collected. Cross tabulation with other variables will enable computation of principal measures such as gross fertility ratio, the average number of children born alive to women who have reached the end of child-bearing period, the proportion of women who are childless by the end of their reproductive life, etc.
No. of Children Still Living	Data on the number of children still living serve as indicators of the mortality of live-born children.
No. of Children Born Alive from May 1, 1999 to April 30, 2000	Data on the number of births in the last twelve months can be used in estimating the current fertility of women. These also serve as bases for studying the prospects of population growth, the probable development of the population’s age structure and its possible effects on the economy and society.
Age at First Marriage	Age at first marriage when tabulated with number of children ever born provides information on the fertility patterns of women on their first marriage.
Type of Building	The distribution of households by type of building supplies information about the available housing accommodation at the time of the census, patterns of living, and building trends. Such details are essential for planning future housing needs. For housing programmes, information is required on the number of households that need to be provided with housing. The number of households living in marginal housing units (commercial/industrial/agricultural buildings used as living quarters such as barns, warehouses, mills, offices, etc., and other housing units such as boats, caves, etc.) provides a first approximation of this element of housing needs.
Construction Material of the Roof/Wall	Data on the construction material of the roof and wall provide information of the construction, replacement and improvement of housing units. This indicator provides data in evaluating construction statistics, programme implementation, and for estimating the investment, past and future, in housing construction. It also determines how many of the households are housed in structurally acceptable housing units. Structural acceptability of housing units implies that these are made of durable construction materials that will safeguard the household occupants from adverse climatic effects and provide protection and privacy.
State of Repair	Data on the state of repair provide information on the current status of the building which is of special significance to housing programmes. It is also useful for housing priorities and for the identification of groups in need of housing repair.
Year of Building/ House was Built	The data on the year of building/house was built provide the basis for appraising the building/house inventory in terms of durability, the expected rate of replacement, and the estimate of the annual rate of building/house construction during the inter-censal period or the preceding 10 years. It also provides the estimate for maintenance costs and an insight into the housing patterns of the population. The year the building was built refers to the year when the construction was completed and when ready for occupancy and not when construction began. Generally, building construction commenced and finished within the same year, although there are cases when the period of construction extends to several years.
Floor Area of the Housing Unit	Density of occupancy in terms of floor area per person is a measure of the adequacy of housing. In line with the aim of housing policy to provide adequate housing space to a level consistent with the maintenance of health of the occupants, it is important in planning to adopt housing standards. The data on floor area will provide planners information on the current status of the density of occupancy of existing housing units in the country.
Fuel for Lighting (Source of Lighting)	The proportion of households with access to electricity can provide planners useful indication of areas where community lighting needs to be extended. Data on types of fuel can be analyzed to forecast future demands for various sources of energy and hence plan for power installations.
Fuel for Cooking	The information on fuel for cooking is relevant in assessing energy planning decisions, energy conservation programs and in developing marketing strategies. It also serves as a benchmark for the study of changes in household energy used and user patterns over time. It is also useful in monitoring supply and demand requirements for alternative fuels.
Source of Water Supply for Drinking and/or Cooking, for Laundry and/or Bathing	The information on main source of drinking water provides the number of households with ready access to a potable water supply, as well as the availability of piped water for each housing unit. The provision of a piped water installation for every housing unit should be one of the primary objectives of housing policy as well as of public health policy.
Tenure Status of the Housing Unit	The extent to which households own or rent the living quarters which they occupy is of special significance to housing programmes. Data on tenure status is also useful for housing priorities and policies, in promotion of house ownership and identification of groups in need of housing assistance.
Acquisition of Housing Unit	Data on the acquisition of housing unit provide information on how the households acquired their housing units, whether purchased, constructed, inherited, or given as gift. Together with the data on the source of financing it can be used in identifying those who might have availed of housing assistance by the government.
Source of Financing	The data on source(s) of financing give information on the extent to which housing assistance is provided by the government. Specifically, these will monitor government participation in terms of financing or administering the construction of new residential units.
Tenure Status of the Lot	The extent to which households own or rent the lot on which their housing unit is built is of special significance to housing programmes as well as in the Land Reform Program of the government.
Monthly Rental of Housing Unit and/or Lot	The information on monthly rental of housing unit or lot is used in reviewing of government housing policy, and in considering matters such as the need for rent controls. It enables analysis of income level to rental level for particular groups.
Kind of Toilet Facility	The data on kind of toilet facility provide the minimum data required for the evaluation of facilities available to the housing units. Like safe drinking water source, a sanitary toilet facility is a measure to prevent diseases and improve the health condition of household members. This indicator likewise determines the sanitation status of households.
Usual Manner of Garbage Disposal	The proportion of households with access to sanitary manner of garbage disposal provides knowledge of the environmental living conditions and is therefore essential for health planners in the formulation of plans and programs to improve general health conditions.
Presence of Household Conveniences	This provides information on selected household conveniences, the presence of which in the household is considered important in connection with programmes of public information or education to know by what means of communication the population can be most easily reached. This also provides a basis for leisure statistics. The presence of motor vehicles in the household provides data about access to private transport. It can also provide information for the construction of roads and solution to traffic problems.
Language/Dialect Generally Spoken	Language/dialect generally spoken at home provides a measure of the linguistic homogeneity or difference in the population. It can also be used to measure the extent of actual use of the language/dialect within a household.