Making Africa Count

The African Census Analysis Project provides access to census data from African states since 1945. African censuses until recently have been greatly underutilized. Most of the census micro-data collected prior to and including the 1960s have deteriorated as a result of poor archiving. Nevertheless existing censuses provide the raw materials for examining demographic trends in several key areas such as population growth, mortality, urbanization, and migration, with great potential not only for training new researchers, but also for local use in administrative and policy-relevant applications. Census data allows study demographic processes at the local administrative level and to examine the spatial components of demographic processes. ACAP pursues three specific aims: archiving of African census data, research collaboration with African researchers, and demographic capacity strengthening in Africa. To date, ACAP has obtained and archived 38 censuses from 16 African nations thus preventing some of them from further destruction. The fifteen countries from which we currently have data spread across all regions of Africa.