Sark census first in half a century

The island has been divided into five districts and six enumerators have been appointed – an extra one in case one is indisposed on census day, 27 April.

Chief Pleas members and curious islanders were given a chance to see the forms at a presentation earlier this month, with registrar Gordon Snell on hand to talk them through the questions and answer any queries.

There was a separate session for the enumerators during which, Mr Snell said, the confidentiality of the process was stressed.

‘The forms started going out on Monday and the enumerators are in place so they can start delivering them on their rounds,’ said Mr Snell.

Islanders have 10 days to complete the forms and can either post them back or have them collected.

Mr Snell said that before the forms were made public there were some concerns.

‘The original concerns all related to personal data,’ he said, but once people saw the forms they were reassured.

Unlike other censuses, this one does not ask for such things as an individual’s income.

Chief Pleas chose the information it wished to have, and among the topics covered by the 23 questions are an individual’s marital status, health, ethnic group, education and employment.

There are also five questions relating to the householder alone.

Mr Snell said that it would probably be the end of May before any queries relating to the forms were all dealt with and they would then go to a Guernsey firm which would do the analytics.

He thought the results could be available about four months later.