Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

New Caledonia statisticians to try refining inaccurate census data for French approval

Posted at 17:07 on 29 November, 2009 UTC

New Caledonia’s bureau of statistics is going to try to refine the data from the recent census before the French government approves it.

The territory’s government has asked France not to approve officially the census findings, released two weeks ago, because the information collected is inaccurate.

The President, Philippe Gomes, says the census was conducted when there was industrial action, a swine flu epidemic and difficulty in recruiting enumerators.

Our correspondent in Noumea, Claudine Wery, says the government could not believe there was a population difference of only 15,000 from the previous census of 2004.

“When the institute of statistics gave this figure last week they said it was an introductory study of what they collected in August and September. So after all the reactions they will try to review their study and maybe try to refine the figures.”