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Summary of Key Information from Belize 2010 Census
Summarized from Statistical Institute of Belize Reports by Lan Sluder

POPULATION
� Belize's population is 312,971, up 30.2% from 2000 (possible under-reporting in Belize City and elsewhere)
� 55% rural, 45% urban
� Average age 22
� Average household size 3.9 persons
� 102 males for every 100 females
� 35.6% of the Belize population is age 14 or younger
� 55.8% of the Belize population is age 24 or younger

LARGEST POPULATION CENTERS
Towns & Cities
1. Belize City 53,532
2. San Ignacio/Santa Elena 16,977
3. Belmopan City 13,654
4. Orange Walk Town 13,400
5. San Pedro 11,510
6. Corozal Town 9,871
7. Dangriga 9,096
8. Benque Viejo 5,824
9. Punta Gorda 5,205

Districts
1. Belize District 89,247
2. Cayo District 73,202
3. Orange Walk District 45,419
4. Corozal District 40,324
5. Stann Creek District 32,166
6. Toledo District 30,538

� San Pedro was the fastest-growing urban area in Belize, with the population increasing 156% since 2000
� Cayo District was the fastest-growing district, with population increasing 39% since 2000, followed by Belize District with a 34% increase

BELIZEAN ETHNICITY
� Belize's population is:
50% Mestizo
21% Creole
10% Maya
6% Mixed Race
4.5% Garifuna
3.6% Mennonite
2.1% East Indian
1% White/Caucasian
0.9% Asian

MARITAL AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
� 33.1% of those 15 and over are married and living with spouse, 23.3% have a common law relationship, 6% are in a visiting partner relationship and 37.3% are not in a union
� 65.8% of children 18 and under are living with both parents
� 22.6% of children 18 and under are living with mother only and 2.5% with father only

FOREIGN BORN POPULATION
� Almost 15% of the population is foreign born, of which about 4 in 10 are from Guatemala and 3 in 10 are from El Salvador or Honduras
� 3,279 Belize residents or about 1% of the total Belize population (not of the foreign born) were born in the U.S. (almost double the number in 2000) and 1,567 or 0.5% in China and 667 in Canada

EDUCATION
� 87,991 Belizeans are enrolled in formal education of which 70% are in primary school and 19% in high school, and over 8% are in some type of tertiary program
� 2,364 Belizeans are in university

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
� 40% Catholic
� 8.5% Pentecostal
� 5.5% Seventh Day Adventist
� 4.6% Anglican
� 3.8% Mennonite
� 3.6% Baptist
� 2.9% Methodist
� 2.8% Nazarene
� 1.7% Jehovah's Witness
� 10.2% Other
� 15.6% None

LABOUR FORCE
� 131,000 Belizeans are in the labour force
� About 30,000 Belizeans of the labour force, or about 23%, do not have a job (exact definition of this "unemployment rate" was not provided)
� Of those working 57% work for a private company, 25% are self-employed and 15% work for the government or a quasi-government organization
� Women in the labour force are twice as likely as men not to have a job - 33.1% for women versus 16.7% for men

HOUSING
� Belize has 75,848 dwelling units, an increase of 46% since 2000
� 82% of dwelling units are houses, as opposed to apartments or condos
� 64.1% of Belizeans own their own dwelling, while 33% rent
� Of those who own, almost 79% do not have a mortgage
� 50% of dwelling units have concrete walls and 80% have sheet metal roofs
� 11% of dwellings do not have kitchens in the building
� About 83% of households cook with butane, while 15% cook with wood or charcoal and only 1% with electricity
� 48% of Belizean households have municipal garbage collection, while 27% burn garbage and 11% take it to a dump
� 85% of households have running water
� 51% of households use bottled water as their main source of drinking water
� About 65% of Belizean dwellings have flush toilets, while 31% use a pit latrine (outhouse) and 3% have no toilet facilities
� Of those with flush toilets, 80% have septic tanks while 20% are on municipal sewage systems
� 62% of households have showers or tubs
� 83% of households have electricity from BEL, while 9% use kerosene lamps or candles, 4% have a drop from a neighbor, 2% have generators and 1% use solar
� Of Belizean dwellings 83% have stoves, 66% have refrigerators, 65% have washing machines, 42% have microwaves and 8% have air-conditioning

COMMUNICATIONS
Of Belizean households �
� 76% have cell phone
� 75% have TV
� 75% have radio
� 50% have DVD player
� 26% have computer

INTERNET USAGE
� About 23% of Belizeans age 5 or over have used the internet in the past 3 months

AUTOMOBILES
� 33.7% of Belizeans have a private motor vehicle

CRIME
Households reporting being victims of crime (time frame not given):
Robbery 41.6%
Burglary 33.7%
Assault 11.8%
Shooting 2.4%
Murder/Manslaughter 2.2%
Domestic violence 2.2%
Sexual assault 1.3%


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30,000 census respondents jobless

Information released this week by the Statistical Institute of Belize revealed that about 30,000 of the persons interviewed in the 2010 census were without a job at the time they were interviewed, yielding a national unemployment rate of 23.1% compared to 20.3% in the 2000 census.

Based on the data Amandala has had a chance to study, the joblessness is clearly a youth problem, because the highest unemployment rates were reported among people in their late teens and early 20s, much the same as was revealed by the last census.

Specifically, the 14 to 19 age group reports an unemployment rate of 50%; the 14 to 24 age group - nearly 30%.

Also of interest is that the highest unemployment rate is among those who did not get any education beyond primary school or who have not completed even this level of formal education.

When we probed Prime Minister Dean Barrow about this very high unemployment rate, he told Amandala Thursday that he has "grave reservations" about the figures.

A 23% unemployment rate signals that, of the 130,000 who want a job and are available to work, a figure 46% higher than the 2000 census report, nearly 1 in 4 don't have one.

The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator that signals the health of the national economy. However, the Prime Minister told us he has reservations about the latest reported figure because census takers never visited his family and several of his neighbors reported that they were not visited during the census exercise. He says he also does not know how accurate the last census in 2000 was, and so declined to comment on the figures.

The question of under-sampling in the 2010 census, in light of the fact that the last population estimate was about 30,000 higher than the population figure in the 2010 census, was addressed by 7 News director Jules Vasquez at the launch of the census findings last Friday.

SIB's Director-General, Glenn Avilez, told the media that some people were, indeed, not interviewed in the census, and the crime situation in Belize City was one factor that hampered the work of his team.

Minister of Sports, Public Service and Governance, John Saldivar, said, "Every attempt was made by the field staff to count each and every single person living within the borders of Belize."

Amandala


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Hispanic population is 50% in Belize

Belize has long been dubbed the melting pot of cultures, with the main ethnic groups being the Maya, Hispanics, Creole, Garinagu, East Indians, and Mennonites, joined by minority groups such as the Chinese, Lebanese and immigrant Indians.

The 2010 census data released by the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) report the Belize population count at 303,422. That's 72,494 more people than the last census taken in 2000- with more than half the growth being reported among Hispanics. While these are the overall numbers, a study of how the Belize population is now distributed across ethnic groups is very revealing.

The SIB reports that the largest ethnic group in Belize is the Mestizo/Spanish/Latino grouping. Furthermore, in absolute numbers, the Mestizo population grew by more persons than any other ethnic group in Belize - with an increase of 38,000, or 34%, since the last census in 2000.

Some of the growth (10%) is attributed to migration from Mexico and Central America. Roughly 80% of the foreign-born population in Belize is from Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

Guatemalans make up roughly 41% or about 19,000 of 46,226 people reported in the foreign-born population.

According to the SIB, Belize receives an average of 1,500 resident migrants each year, and about 38% of the foreign-born population arrived within the last decade. Most of them live in the Cayo and Belize Districts, which showed higher net population growth than any of the other districts since the last census - 39% and 34%, respectively.

The foreign-born population also enjoys a higher employment rate than the local population - 82% versus 77%.

Whereas Hispanics continue to be the largest ethnic group living in Belize, the second largest ethnic group in Belize is the Creole population, reported at 21%. This population grew by about 5,000 or 9% since the last census in 2000.

The third largest group in Belize is the Maya, who make up 10% of the people counted in the 2010 census. The Kekchi and Mopan Maya populations also reported growth during the past decade, 41% and 18% respectively; however, the Yucatec Maya numbers have declined by 32% or just over 1,000 persons since the last census report.

The Garifuna population counted in the 2010 census now numbers 13,985, versus 14,061 in the 2000 census - a small decline of less than a percent. The Garinagu make up 4.6% of the population counted in the 2010 census.

SIB says that about 19,000 persons or 6% of the population claimed to be of mixed ethnic origin.

Amandala


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Hon. Herredia Has Census Doubts
posted (May 5, 2011)

And while that father of three was killed in the city this morning, yesterday afternoon in Orange Walk, a teenager was clubbed to death with a pipe when he went to help his little brother in a school fight. We'll have that story for you a little later in the newscast.

But first, A minister of government has spoken up against the 2010 census. Tourism Minister and Belize Rural South Area Representative Juniour Heredia told 7 News he believes the latest census is seriously flawed. That's because the census says that San Pedro has a fixed population of eleven thousand residents. Heredia says he knows intuitively, from his work campaigning that the actual population is somewhere closer to Twenty thousand:

Jim McFadzean
"Minister I see now the last census report says that the population of San Pedro is somewhere in and around 12,000. Do you believe that there has been some under reporting of these latest statistics?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Definitely according to my personal house to house that I have done during my campaign definitely it has to be more than that. If you look at our voters list, it's over 5,000 registered voters. If you put that by 3 which would be a minimum of small families of 3 that would give you over 15,000 people. It is my estimate and the Mayors' estimate that we have around 20,000 population on the island, so for 12,000 to be reported I have serious concerns about that."

Jim McFadzean
"So you are saying that the latest census is very fraudulent?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"To me yes. It is my understanding that a number of families refuse to give information to the Statistic people. The reason why I do not know, but definitely from my visit from house to house during my electoral campaign I can tell you that definitely it is much more that the 12,000."

Jim McFadzean
"What do you believe are the reasons or were the reasons for this flaw in the under reporting of San Pedro's population?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Well I believe first that the people that are doing the census and they did not go probably with the right approach to the family members, then these people will definitely refuse to give information. There are many times people feel that it is for tax purposes or other type of things and for that reason they even refuse to open the doors to the Statistic people to give information."

Jim McFadzean
"Do you believe because San Pedro is such a Trans in society that that has to do with the under reporting with the real population figures of the island?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"No so because it's a very migrating population but I can tell you that people that are register over here have made San Pedro be their home."

Jim McFadzean
"Do you believe that the questionnaire of the census was a little bit more personal that the questions that were being ask that people felt that was a little too intrusive?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Definitely including myself I have some concerns with the questionnaire that they were asking I believe that in some cases they were too personal."

Jim McFadzean
"Will the Cabinet review this census and maybe consider the possibility of redoing it?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Again I as a Cabinet member had some concern because the people that were in charge in almost all the areas that were doing the report are mostly people from the opposition."

Regardless of doubts such as those, the Census managers say they stick by their numbers.

Channel 7


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Census Report and Its Importance to Belize's Health

The long awaited census report is now out and the question is "Now what?" For a long time folks in San Pedro have been estimating the population of San Pedro to range between 15,000 to 20,000 persons, that is men, women and children, locals and foreigners.

Well, the official figure puts us at about 13,000 and at this point it does not matter too much whether the census report is accurate for San Pedro or not. A lot of folks we have heard from, say they were not counted; so it is realistic to assume that the figure should be a bit higher, definitely not lower.

Fine, let us work with the 13,000 figure. We wanted numbers, right? Now what? HEALTH

Let us examine the health services of Belize and particularly of San Pedro since we are dealing with only 13,000 of the 314,000 living in the country of Belize. First of all there is a ratio of the total number of doctors or health providers in relation to the population. The world average puts it at 1: 1,722 which means that there is one doctor for every 1,722 persons. It is interesting to note that Cuba leads the world with a ratio of 1:170. Most areas in the United States have a ratio of 1:400. Mexico has a ratio of one doctor per 500 persons. Guatemala who is our next neighbor has a ratio of 1: 1,100.

Now let us look at Belize. A report produced by PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) and by WHO (World Health Organization) sets a standard ratio of doctors per population as 1:600. At this standard ratio, it means that San Pedro should have 22 doctors. We know that there are 2,283 health providers in Belize, that is counting administration as well. However, there are only 1,279 doctors and nurses combined. We have only 181 general practitioners in the country and 64 specialized doctors. This report by PAHO signals that the ratio of doctors to population in Belize is currently 1:1,333.

For San Pedro it means that at this ratio we should have 10 doctors. But ideally our number should be at the standard recommended of 22. If we use the U.S. ratio we should have 32 and the Mexico ratio we need 26. Don't even consider the ratio of Cuba which would demand us to have 76 doctors serving us on the Island.

Conclusion, we are below the average number of doctors recommended by PAHO and World Health Organization. We need government to put more doctors in our clinic and upgrade it to full time hospital. We also need the public sector, our young graduates from the high school and junior colleges, to enter into the field of medicine and return to San Pedro to render their much needed services. San Pedro has grown by 150% in population but it has not grown in the number of doctors by any significant means. The Census has spoken. It's time to pay more attention to health services.

Ambergris Today


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Saldivar Says Census "Spot On"

Since the findings of the 2010 census were officially presented at the end of April, there have been murmurs of dissatisfaction and even howls of disapprobation form those who don't agree with the findings.

One Cabinet Minister and area representative for Belize Rural South Manuel Junior Heredia even said that the population estimate for his Island of San Pedro were just plain wrong.

Well today the minister rof the Public Service John Saldivar addressed the House on the census and said that his colleague Heredia is the one that's wrong:

Hon. John Saldivar
"Preliminary indications are that the 2010 under [#%!] rate will not exceed 4% or 13,000 persons. It should be noted that while the aim of the census was to count everybody living in Belize, it was impractical for the census takers to interview each person as this would have taken eternity since it would be highly unlikely that all members of a household would be present at the time of the census takers visit. With less than 80,000 household counted it is not far fetch that only one quarter of the population was interviewed. The assertion that San Pedro Ambergris Caye has more than twice the population reported is inaccurate, as it would suggest that San Pedro is almost as big as Orange Walk town and Belmopan City combined. This is impossible, regarding the second concerns surrounding the unemployment rate - it should be noted that the unemployment rate is a time sensitive economic indicator. In other words there can be significant variations in this rate from one month to another especially for an economy like Belize's where activities in sugar, citrus and tourism industries are seasonal. With most of the census field work occurring during the off peak periods of these three industries and schools summer vacation period as was the case ten years ago - it is expected that the unemployment rate would be higher than that at other times of the year. To observe that the national unemployment rate has only increase by 2.8 percentage points from 20.3% in 2000 to 23.1% in 2010 is significant given that our country is still reeling from the effects of the global economic crisis. The discussion on the findings on the 2010 census is very healthy. Criticism and skepticism are welcome because it forces introspection and improvement in how we do things and how we explain things to the public. If it was not known before the Statistical Institute of Belize now knows that we have a more attuned public who must now be convinced of the accuracy of any exercise or statistic presented by the institute."

Interestingly, to bolster his argument of census accuracy in San Pedro, Saldivar used Ministry of Education figures to compare primary school enrollment in Orange Walk and Belmopan - which was about three thousand for each of those towns, with San Pedro which was just one thousand.

Channel 7


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Bad timing? Saldivar says unemployment rate is 'time sensitive'

John Saldivar

Although crime was the hot button issue at today's House Meeting on the Hill, the census findings were also discussed. Recently, Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia said publically that he, as well as San Pedro's Mayor, Elsa Paz, both believe that the population on the island is closer to twenty thousand and not eleven thousand as the census indicates. But today, Minister John Saldivar rose up to defend the San Pedro figures as well as the unemployment statistics. He explains away the high unemployment rate of twenty-three percent to bad timing. That's right, he says the census was carried out during a time when there was less seasonal work in the agricultural belt and school was out. He also said, "The increase in the national unemployment rate is consistent with the rise in the poverty rate." That begs the question of whether or not he believes the poverty is also seasonal. Here's how he explains it.

John Saldivar, Acting Minister of Economic Development

"The assertion that San Pedro Ambergris Caye has more than twice the population reported is inaccurate. As it would suggest that San Pedro is almost as big as Orange Walk Town and Belmopan City combined. This is impossible. So if indeed the figures for San Pedro were wrong, then it suggests that the figures for the other urban centers are also wrong. And we do not yet have claims of significant disagreement with the figures from other municipalities. Unemployment rate. It should be noted that unemployment rate is a time sensitive economic indicator. In other words, there can be significant variations in this rate from one month to another especially for an economy like Belize's where activities in sugar, citrus and tourism industries are seasonal. With most of the census field work occurring during off peak periods of these three industries and school's summer vacation period as was the case ten years ago, it is expected that the unemployment work would be higher than other times of the year. To observe that the national unemployment rate has only increased by two point eight percentage points-from twenty point three percent in 2000 to twenty-three point one percent in 2010, is significant given that our country is still reeling from the effects of the Global Economic Crisis. In 2000, there was no such crisis and yet unemployment rate at that time of the year was twenty percent. The increase in the national unemployment rate is consistent with the rise in the national poverty rate. Could there have been flaws in the conduct of the census that would produce flawed results Mister Speaker? Of course, we are all only humans."

In addition to the Belize Constitution Eighth Amendment Bill, other bills were tabled including the Firearms Amendment Bill and the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service Bill came up for second readings.

Channel 5



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