Problems with carrying out a census

undertaking the census is a very expensive process

in developing countries there may be higher priorities for spending, such as housing. e.g. Ethiopia

the sheer size of some populations makes it difficult to conduct a census, like India or China with more than 1 billion people.

nomads, such as the Bedouin Nomads, can easily be missed or counted twice.

poor infrastructure and difficult terrain like the Amazon rainforest can make it difficult for enumerators to distribute census forms.

many people in developing countries may live in shanty towns, e.g. Dharavi, so have no fixed address, making them difficult to count.

illegal immigrants are unlikely to fill in a census for fear of deportation, leading to inaccurate data.

countries with many official languages will have to translate their census form

they will also have to employ enumerators who can speak multiple languages, e.g. India with more than 30 official languages.

many people in developing countries can’t read and write meaning they can’t fill in the form.

they could make accidental mistakes, leading to inaccurate data, for example, Chad is 22% illiterate.

in countries with lots of conflict data can become outdated quickly due to high death rate, e.g. Syria