The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has disclosed that the National Population and Housing Census (PHC) will be conducted next year.

The GSS explained that the coronavirus pandemic and destabilisation of Ghana’s population by the upcoming general elections and related activities necessitated the postponement.

The 2020 Population and Housing Census (PHC) was fixed for March 15, 2020, but was rescheduled twice to May 15 and then to June 28, this year.

The GSS explained that the June 28 date was to allow for the service to conduct a mapping process and build quality data for the main census exercise.

Following the upsurge in the COVID-19 cases in the country, the GSS decided that the exercise would be done at a later date within the year.

This is not the first time Ghana has postponed the census.

In post-independence Ghana, five population censuses have been conducted — 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000 and 2010.

Over 51,000 enumerators had been trained for the exercise.