In Jordan, the beginning dates back to 1952, when the first operation to enumerate buildings, housing, and population was carried out, and the population at that time amounted to about 586 thousand people. In 1961, the first comprehensive population and housing census was conducted using scientific methodologies compatible with United Nations recommendations, collecting more detailed demographic, social, and economic information. Subsequent censuses followed in 1979, 1994, 2004, and 2015. The results of these censuses formed the basis upon which population estimates and many economic and social indicators between one census and another were built.
Today, Jordan is entering a new phase with the 2026 census. The census includes about 2.5 million households, and about 1 million buildings, distributed across approximately 24 thousand statistical blocks. Nearly 12 thousand male and female researchers are participating in the field operation, including about 10 thousand teachers. Technology is also entering more extensively than before, through tablets, electronic questionnaires, digital maps, and linkage with government records, in addition to using artificial intelligence tools in auditing and follow-up.
The estimated cost of the census is about 24 million dinars, which is a very small cost compared to what we could lose if we make investment decisions worth billions of dinars relying on old or inaccurate population information. In the coming years, the state will build schools, hospitals, roads, water and sewage networks, public transportation, housing projects, and infrastructure. It will decide where to expand universities and schools, where it needs new health centers, where the need for water and energy is increasing, and where training and employment programs should be directed. Every single one of these decisions has a cost, and some of them have impacts lasting for decades.
If a school is built in an area where the number of children is declining, while another area suffers from increasing overcrowding, there will be an economic cost and a waste of scarce resources. If infrastructure is established in a place that does not represent a true population priority, there is an opportunity cost. If the state does not know where tens of thousands of youth will join the labor market in the coming years, employment and training policies become less efficient. From here, population data becomes a type of economic infrastructure, exactly as the state needs roads, electricity, and communications.
The benefit is not limited to the government. An investor who wants to establish a factory wants to know where the labor force is located. A retail company wants to know where population, income, and demand are growing. A real estate developer needs to know family size, composition, and urban expansion trends. An investor in education or health needs to know the age structure of the population and their geographical distribution. Therefore, the database produced by the census is an economic asset used by the public sector, the private sector, and researchers together.
The census also has another economic function; it provides the basis on which we calculate many of the indicators we use to judge the performance of the economy. Gross domestic product per capita requires a precise estimate of the population. Likewise, the number of doctors relative to the population, the numbers of students, labor market participation rates, poverty, service, and housing indicators, and others. If the denominator upon which we base the calculation is inaccurate, the indicator itself may give an inaccurate picture.
This is where the importance of conducting the census periodically appears. Jordan, whose population was about 586 thousand people in 1952, has exceeded 12 million people today. Not only has the number changed; the distribution of the population, age structure, city size, housing patterns, migration, and demand for services have also changed. Therefore, a state changing at this speed cannot plan for the future with a population map dating back more than a decade. The economic logic is clear: better information reduces the probability of a wrong decision, and a wrong decision in a project worth hundreds of millions may cost much more than the cost of gathering the information that could have prevented it. In a state that will make investment decisions worth billions of dinars during the coming decade, accurate information may be one of the highest-yielding and lowest-cost investments.
