5 Reasons for Using Email and Mobile Technology in a Population Survey

Statistics South Africa is planning to use the Internet and email as one of the survey tools in South Africa's next population census in 2011. As a prelude to this, the state institution is using e-mail to communicate with farmers in the upcoming Commercial Agriculture Census.

Here are some of the reasons the government institution gave for the move:

1. Convenience for respondents

The questionnaire can easily be forwarded to the person designated to complete it. Electronic copies are also hard to lose.

2. Reach remote farm areas

An email questionnaire allows the field worker to reach hard-to-reach, remote areas which were previously inaccessible. This is especially important in instances where field workers were unable to reach potential respondents because of distances, or a guard dog.

3. Respond at own time

In general, working people don't want to arrive at home after work and have to face a field worker with long list of questions. An email survey gives respondents the opportunity to take part in a census without having to entertain a field worker in their homes.

4. Citizens like the idea

Earlier this year Stats SA ran a poll to determine the possibility of adding of an online channel to the 2011 census. This was done through an online questionnaire and through workshops.

The response to the idea of an online option was positive, with 97% of the 1 194 respondents saying they are willing to complete the census questionnaire online. Of the 425 national workshops participants, 90% said they would use the online option.

Only 6.7% of respondents to Stats SA's research efforts said they did not have Internet access. Some 28.8% said they had access at home, 53.8% at work, 5.9% at a school or college, 2.8% at an Internet café and 2.2% said they had access to the Internet elsewhere

5. Improved quality of data

Stats SA says it is looking at how Australia, New Zealand and Canada conducted the online portions of their censuses. The idea is to learn from the challenges they faced, the results they received and lessons learnt.

Australia's 2006 census saw 9% of households use its online option and produce higher data quality. However, Stats SA says it is mindful that the improved quality of data may have been due to the socio-economic status of these respondents.

The online option also added to the cost of the Australia's 2006 census, as that country chose to distribute the paper questionnaire to all households, says Stats SA.

Canada targeted an Internet response rate of 20%. Although 22% of the initial response to the census was via the Internet, only 18% of respondents actually used the online channel to deliver their forms. Like Australia, the quality of its Internet-delivered content was higher than its paper response.