The scope of the 2011 Tonga Census of Population and Housing includes:
- HOUSEHOLD: Household listing, dwelling characteristics, housing utilities, durable goods, information technology, income, remittances, and mortality.
- INDIVIDUAL: Personal characteristics, migration, disability, smoking habit, education, labour force and employment, voting eligibility, and fertility
-Population: Population's relationship, marital status, religion, residence, origins, education, work status, women's characteristics (on children given birth to)
-Housing: Living quarters and its conditions, water and electricity access, sanitation, waste disposal, household durables and livestock & pets
The objectives of Census changed over time shifting from earlier years where they were essentially household registrations and counts, to now where a national population census stands supreme as the most valuable single source of statistical data for the Fiji.
Census data is now widely used to evaluate:
- The availability of basic household needs in key sectors, to identify disadvantaged areas and help set priorities for action
plans;
- Benefits of development programmes in particular areas, such as literacy, employment and family planning;
The Census is the official count of population, dwellings and households in Tonga and it provides a ‘snapshot’ of the country at one specific point in time: 30th of November 2011. A Tonga census has been taken once in every ten years since 1956. However the population census of 2011 is the first population census by 5 year interval from the previous census in 2006 due to the Electoral Boundary Commission (EBC)'s request according to its Act 2010.