From rebels to nuns, Mexico counts them all
	Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:14:02 -0500


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 From rebels to nuns, Mexico counts them all 
 10:01 p.m. Jan 26, 2000 Eastern 

By Richard Jacobsen 

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 27 (Reuters) - Mexico is rounding up friends of the
Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, street gang toughs in Tijuana and housewives
in Mexico City.

They are being sent to guerrilla camps deep in the jungle, or luxury homes
on the tree-lined boulevards of the capital, or shantytowns along the Rio
Grande or Tarahumara Indian villages tucked in the crevices of the Sierra
Madre.

Their monumental task: Find out how many people inhabit Mexico's 742,000
square miles (1.9 million sq km), a question that may have significant
economic and political consequences in a presidential and congressional
election year.

``That's the big doubt we're hoping to clear up: How many of us Mexicans
there are,'' said Antonio Puig Escudero, president of the national
statistics institute, known by its Spanish acronym INEGI. On Feb. 7 INEGI
will launch its 2000 census, the most ambitious and detailed effort to
track the lives and lifestyles of Mexicans since the country began regular
population counts in 1895.

HUGE POPULATION GROWTH

In 1895 Mexico's population was just 12.7 million. Today it is thought to
number around 100 million, but that figure is a rough extrapolation from
prior census data using estimates for birth and death rates, emigration
and immigration.

For the census job, INEGI is recruiting 500,000 people from all walks of
Mexico's immensely complex social and economic tapestry -- people the
institute hopes will be able to break down barriers in groups
traditionally wary of outsiders.

Unlike the United States, where mail-in forms are used with door-to-door
counting only as a backup, Mexico's count will be entirely by face-to-face
interviews. So INEGI is signing up interviewers who speak the 90 or so
indigenous languages.

``The census is going to be taken by local people, people who know the
customs and geography of their community,'' Puig told Reuters.

With an estimated cost around $300 million, the 2000 census will also be
the country's longest, lasting 12 days compared to five days in 1990. The
first data from the census is expected in 12 weeks after the end of the
collection period.

NOT EXEMPT FROM POLITICS

Like most things in Mexico, the census has political implications,
particularly heading into the July 2 presidential and congressional
elections. The data may affirm or call into question government forecasts
for such hot-button statistics as per-capita income, literacy, access to
housing and birth rates. Congressional representation is also at stake.

Given the importance of the data, INEGI's role is compared by some to the
role played by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the independent body
charged with ensuring the election is fair and clean.

``INEGI for us in many ways is just as important as the IFE,'' said Dan
Lund, a pollster with Mexico City-based MUND Research. ``Its independence
is critical because we've got to be able to look at that data as an
accurate reference point.''

He said the census data is bound not to please everyone but he insisted
INEGI is not under any political pressure. ``The institute's interests are
strictly statistical, to reflect reality just as it is.''

In addition to the head count and questions on occupation, education
levels and housing, the 2000 census will also seek to find out how
well-equipped and environmentally friendly Mexicans are as the country
heads into the 21st century.

For the first time, census takers will ask residents if they have
appliances such as a radio, television or computer and if they have an
automobile. They will inquire about any physical disabilities and their
causes and about access to health care. People will also be asked for the
first time how often and where they throw out their garbage.

The data will likely make the census a gold mine not just for policymakers
and statisticians but economists, marketers, environmentalists and others.

``It's going to be a big X-ray of living conditions in Mexico at the start
of the 21st century,'' Puig said.


Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.

 
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