More than 450 Statisticians Started this morning GaStat Launches the “Statistical Calendar” for 1438H Hajj Season Through its official website www.stats.gov.sa, the General Authority for statistics (GaStat) launched the statistical calendar for the 1438H Hajj season. It shows the publishing dates of services provided by the Kingdom to pilgrims, in addition to the statistics of domestic and international pilgrims. GaStat official spokesman, Mr. Taiseer Almofarrej, explained that the statistical calendar with its content, from statistics and numbers, aims to show the efforts made to pilgrims from more than 45 public and private entities. On the second day of the current month of Dhu al-Hijjah, the statistics of services provided to pilgrims from health and medical services, public services, transportation sector services and telecommunication services will be announced respectively. Then, the number of domestic and international pilgrims arriving to Makkah will be published and updated daily until the evening of the 9th day of Dhu Al-Hijjah when the total number of pilgrims will be announced. Mr. Almofarrej added that GaStat will issue the detailed bulletin of Hajj statistics the morning of Eied day (10 Dhul Al-Hijja ), he also added that all information will be available at GaStat official website on schedule.  On the other hand, GaStat official spokesman explained that the enumeration of pilgrims coming to Makkah has started the morning of Wednesday (1st of Dhu Al-Hijjah), by more than 450 statisticians, administrative and technicians from GaStat. They are distributed on all main centers in Makkah, Medina, Jeddah and Alta’if, and they work 24 hours until the sunset of Arafah day, next Thursday (9th of Dhu Al-HIjjah). GaStat called all pilgrims coming to Makkah for Hajj to provide the necessary statistical data required in all Pilgrims enumeration centers this year which are (Makkah/Jeddah Highway) Road , (Makkah/old Jeddah)Road, Altan’eim center(the connection road between Medina and Makkah), AlShrai’e center (the connection road between Makkah city and Alta’if city through AlSail), Alkar center (the connection road between Makkah and Alta’if through Alhada), and the Southern center ( Allaith -Jazan road  near Als’adeiah village) in addition to the Hajj statistics supportive centers in Jeddah at King Abdulaziz international airport, mass transportation stations, and other locations in Jeddah, Medina center (Abiar Ali and ‘Ashirah), and Alta’if center (Alsail Alkabeer).

In cooperation with the Communication and Information Technology Commission and the General Sport Authority GaStat starts to visit more than 57,000 households next Thursday The General Authority of Statistics (GaStat) will start next Thursday, 19 Shawwal 1438H (13 June 2017), to visit more than 57,000 households in all regions of the Kingdom in coopereation with the Communication and Information Technology Commission and the General Sport Authority to conduct 3 household surveys: the survey of ICT’s access and use for households and individuals, sports survey for households, and the labour force survey for the third quarter. GaStat calls upon all citizens and residents to cooperate with the statisticians working in the field in 13 regions of the Kingdom including their cities and provinces. The work of than 450 field researcher will continue until 25 Dhu al-Qa’dah 1438 H (17 august 2017). GaStat official spokesman, Mr. Taiseer Almofarrej, explained that the household sport survey is one of the requirements of the Saudi Vision 2030 in cooperation with the General Sport Authority. It aims to provide recent indicators about the extent of playing sports for households. Through its results, stakeholders will learn about the reasons for playing sports or not and they will get updated statistics about the relationship of households with sports. It will also provide a comprehensive picture on the size of community participation in sports and physical activity. In addition, it will provide data on the ratio of sports practitioners within the household who practice sports on a regular basis, at least once a week. It also provides data on the percentage of sports practitioners in public facilities, clubs or sports centres, and the number of times a person is engaged in sports during the week, and the reasons why a person may not exercise. Mr. Almofarrej added that this survey coincides with the Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of this year which aims to provide detailed data about national labour force, measure the rates of employment and unemployment, provide data on employed and unemployed individuals, identifying the average monthly wages of the workers, provide data on the average weekly actual working hours by occupation, and economic activity of workers, and data on formal and informal workers. The results will be published in the Labour Market Bulletin, which was recently launched by GaStat. Regarding the survey of ICT’s access and use for individuals and households, GaStat’s official spokesman said that in cooperation with the Communication and Information Technology Commission aims at providing updated data and indicators on the extent of household and individual’s access to information and communication technologies. It includes: the availability of communication and information technology devices, the extent of using mail services by households and household access to ICTs. The survey will also provide individual data including: the extent to which information technologies are used for individuals, age groups, educational and occupational status, difficulties, places of use and reasons for not using ICTs. On the other hand, Mr. Taiseer Almofarrej confirmed that the GaStat has been keen to involve all relevant parties from data producers and users in developing its statistical products from creation to publishing through integrated partnership. A training program was recently held for the supervisors of these surveys, in which the Communications and Information Technology Commission and the General Sport Authority has participated. GaStat has confirmed that all information will be treated as an information basis which is reliable and can be used by development decision-makers in all relevant government entities that will serve the interest of citizens and residents. Gastat also has mentioned that al statistical researchers carry official badges and they are officially authorized to collect data to be kept confidential in accordance with the general statistics system issued by the Council of Ministers. GaStat also made available on its official website www.stats.gov.sa the opportunity for students and interested individuals to view field search forms on which the data will be collected. All households and establishments may inquire through the toll free number 8001240440 about this work or other coming work.

Administrative-based Census and Centralized Data System Included Cabinet Okays Statistical Cooperation with Netherlands and Korea As part of its continuous support for statistical sector in Saudi Arabia, the Cabinet has approved in its sessions held on Ramadan 3rd and 17th respectively, the mandate to the Minister of Economy and Planning or his nominee for holding discussions with the Dutch and Korean sides on statistical development, and to sign memorandums of understanding (MoU) with them in this regard. His Excellency President of the General Authority for Statistics (GAStat) Dr. Fahad Sulaiman Altekhaifi hailed the decision stressing:  “The statistics sector in Saudi Arabia receives ongoing support from our leaders at all levels; establishing the importance of statistics in development. These agreements aim to develop our statistical endeavors based on the world’s best practices in the field. Also, our discussions with the Dutch side will address developing modern mechanisms to implement register-based census in compliance with the internationally recognized standards, including a defined statistical approach to run censuses, document data, and to store them in statistical archives. Also, this includes developing the necessary technical tools to create a comprehensive system from census databases, and leverage them in statistical surveys and studies, those implemented by GAStat, public or private agencies. The bilateral cooperation between KSA and Netherlands enhances sharing statistical awareness programs to ensure community participation and to share success stories, to boost the exchange of expertise between both countries, and to take part in statistics-related training courses, conferences, forums, seminars and workshops." As far as cooperation with Korea is concerned, GAStat President noted: “It features the development of technical mechanisms to collect and publish statistics in accordance with the internationally recognized standards, to identify basics needed to create a comprehensive system using various statistical databases and to share expertise as to the requirements to build a centralized data center, which will automatically be connected to all public agencies. Also, this is meant to secure the tools needed to activate these centers, and to develop public policies and mechanisms to provide statistics-based technical and advisory services to both public and private entities. It should be noted that GAStat has undertaken a series of preparatory steps with several local and international organizations towards finalizing the preparations for the (1440H – 2020) census, which will be the first register-based census using administrative records (civil registration number, national ID number, resident ID number), as well as the national home address. Unlike earlier censuses, this census features a comprehensive electronic connectivity with a number of stakeholders, including the National Information Center, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Housing, the Saudi Post, as well as various sectors in concern with the citizen, resident and housing data.