Census History in Oman
Census 1993

In December 1993, the government of the Sultanate of Oman carried out the first general census of population, housing and establishments, culminated with the patronage of H.M. Sultan Qaboos bin Said by issuance of the Royal Decree No. 50/91 dated 10 July 1991. The Royal patronage sustained through the various census phases, crowned by a speech of H.M. via media before commencing the actual enumeration, specifically 30 November 1993, the eve of the census moment, urging the citizens and expatriates to participate in the success of this pioneer Endeavour and cooperate with the census authorities by providing the required data.

The census programme, in fact, consisted of three simultaneous major operations: the population census, the housing census and the establishment census. Furthermore, a comprehensive inventory of all the buildings on the Sultanate territories was also conducted. The relationship between the census programme, agriculture census, the Civil Register and the mechanism of enumerating the Omani abroad, was clearly defined during the preparatory works. The phase included also considering the feasibility of using the census programme in the statistical frames. The enumeration methods, data processing, selecting the approximate time for enumeration, defining the census manpower sources, training and concurring the population total estimation (1993).

Plans for the comprehensive publicity programme were laid so it could be implemented before and during commencing the field operations. The programme consisted several seminars, lectures, broadcasted interviews, newspapers' advertisements and notices, posters and placards on roads and public areas and shopping moles. All these publicity is meant to urge the citizens and residents to cooperate with the census staff.