The National Statistics Office (NSO) strives and continues to support government by providing socio-economic statistics for monitoring and evaluation purposes through population censuses. These socio-economic statistics are also made available to other users such as the businesses, the churches, regional and international organizations. One of the main sources of demographic and social-economic statistics in Kiribati is the population and housing census. Kiribati has been carrying out population and housing censuses in a "modern sense" at intervals of about five years since 1985.
Information from the census provides an overall view of the people of Tokelau and the places where they live. Census information is used to plan vital public services, such as education, health, housing, and transport. It is also used to help understand how society changes over time.
The five-yearly Census of Population and Dwellings is a very important item on Tokelau’s agenda. Its results provide the most authoritative data on how many people we have, what the composition of their households is, what education level they have, how they contribute to Tokelau’s economy, and so on.