The first population and housing census in Angola after the country’s independence has been delayed for a year until 2014 based on a majority decision by members of the Angolan parliament, according to Angolan news agency Angop.

The reason for the delay was given by the Minister for Land Planning and Development, Job Graça, who said that the general elections, last August, had made it impossible to carry out the pilot census.

According to the minister, “before carrying out the general census a pilot census must be carried out, a minimum of eight months beforehand, based on the census moment.”

The Angolan National Statistics Institute (INE) has proposed 00.00 hours of 16 May 2014 as the “census moment” and the Angolan President is now responsible for setting a new date.

Last week, the director-general of the National Statistics Institute, Camilo Ceita, said that the population census was expected to register a population of around 21 million people in Angola. (macauhub)