BPS pushes to release 'landmark' 2020 census early next year

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) is working toward releasing the results of the 2020 population census by the first quarter of 2021, while the research community and the government expect the census to set a new statistical milestone for the country. The agency is currently processing and checking the data it has collected from February to early October, and which involved approximately 268 million Indonesians. “We hope the data processing will run smoothly without hitting a snag, so we can release the census results by the first quarter of next year,” Nurma Midayanti, the BPS director for population and employment statistics, told The Jakarta Post. The 2020 census is the country’s seventh decennial population census since its inception in 1961. The census is intended to illustrate Indonesia’s demographic condition, which can then be used to project t…