KAMPALA, UGANDA – President Yoweri Museveni is set to release the preliminary results of the 2024 National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) on Thursday, June 27, 2024. The highly anticipated results come after a tumultuous census exercise that was marred by technical challenges and other hurdles.
The census exercise, which began on May 10, 2024, and ended on May 19, 2024, was carried out by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in collaboration with the National Population and Housing Census (NPHC). Despite the challenges, the exercise successfully captured data on a wide range of personal and household characteristics, including demographic and social characteristics, residence and migration characteristics, parental survival, disability status, education, literacy, and field of specialization.
The data collected will be crucial in evaluating the performance of the National Development Plan III (NDPIII), which ends in July, before the launch of another development plan. The information will also be used to create a model for development plans, identify national strategic priorities, match development programs, and determine the best way to distribute resources across the country to promote long-term poverty alleviation, socioeconomic change, and development programs.
Furthermore, the government plans to use the data to track the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM), which has been praised as the magic bullet in turning over 60 percent of Ugandans from a subsistence way of life to a money economy.
While the preliminary results are set to be released on Thursday, the final results of the census will be released on December 24, 2024. The census results are expected to provide a comprehensive picture of Uganda’s population size, distribution, and characteristics, which will inform development planning and decision-making.
The results are expected to have significant implications for the country’s development trajectory and will be closely watched by policymakers, researchers, and the general public.
