The 2024 National Census officially begins today after Prime Minister James Marape announced the National Census 2024 went live at 12am midnight. PM Marape announced this during a press conference held on Sunday afternoon and urged all Papua New Guineans and resident to remain in their main residences to allow for the smooth flow of the census to happen. The Prime Minister's Household survey and census also took place last night in Port Moresby. All data collected will be uploaded on a cloud data base and will be displayed on a dashboard at the National Statistics Office. This dashboard will show real time data as the Census which will be conducted by 22,000 volunteers from the public service right around the country, collect data and send to the main database. PM Marape called on all Papua New Guineas to “be counted” in this year’s National Census which begins today and to ensure that the goal is for everybody to be counted. “You must be counted!" "We don’t want to leave anyone behind!" "The National Census is labelled, ‘Be Counted’, therefore, our country needs to know who you are.” “We intend to have only one database for our population in which is important to plan for your education, for your health, for your infrastructure, for your law and order and for your economic well-being.” With all that has been planned for to carry out the census, PM Marape also highlighted issues surrounding the country, but the key deficiency carried for so many years since the last census in 2011, is knowing the current population number and knowing who are in the country. “Since 2011, it has been now 13 years, that’s a growth of 3.5% a year as far as our population growth is concerned." "Therefore, I want to appeal to our citizens nationwide to not see this as a small-time event, but a major national event as you need to be known wherever you are in the country.” He also encouraged all citizens to also assist the census officials nationwide especially in their respective districts and province as a whole so that no one is left behind. PM Marape addressed the nation during a press conference alongside Minister of Administrative Services, Richard Masere, who is responsible for the census as well as Public Service Minister, Joe Sungi, and Chief Secretary, Ivan Pomaleu. In addition to this, Minister Masere also provided an update on the census preparations, stating that as of last night it was considered a reference night whilst today is when the actual counting starts. This will see all Census Enumerators and data collectors moving through the entire country to collect data from every individual starting with family units, villages, wards, Local Level Governments and also to districts and the provinces. “As the enumerators are bring trained across the country, some provinces have already completed their training and are now ready for dispatch despite a few provinces who were lagging slightly behind due to administrative challenges that we faced during the week such as fuel crisis which restricted some movements of our cargo." "This, however, has been addressed and attended to.” Despite the hurdles, the government has ensured a successful census process and Minster Masere thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership. “Census is the start of everything else we do." "It starts the planning process; our budgetary framework are all behind the numbers that we must have and with that I encourage everyone to participate in the census.” The 2024 National Census will be carried out from the 17th to the 30th of June 2024.