Interviewer instructions
3.1.5. Residence status
There are three categories for classifying the residence situation or residence status:
1. Resident, present at time of the reference night (RP)
2. Resident, absent at time of the reference night (RA)
3. Visitors (VI)
1. Resident present (RP)
A person is resident present if he/she usually lives, more than six months, in the place where
he/she is enumerated and if he/she is present on reference night, the night preceding the first day of the census.
A delay of six months is considered as a reference to determine the residence status in most of the cases, however there are a few exceptions. These are certain categories of persons who live less than six months in a given place, but who intend to stay, and who in addition will not be enumerated as absent in that place.
Examples:
A woman who just married is resident where she lives with her husband as soon as she moves in.
A civil servant, who has been sent to a new place, becomes immediately resident in this new place.
A person who just moved to a new place, alone or with his/her family, with the intention to stay in this new place for any reason, becomes resident in this new place.
The following persons will also be enumerated as resident present, even though they have not spent the reference night in their households:
Physicians on night duty
Night watchmen (sentinelles/zamu)
Persons who spent the night in a night club, or in a night of prayers.
Factory workers who work at night
Military personnel who spent the night in a camp or on duty.
2. Resident absent (RA)
A person who usually lives in the census place, but who was not present on the reference night. To indicate this category, one will write RA in the corresponding box. The person must be absent for a period shorter than six months. If the absence is longer, the person will be considered resident present in the other place where he/she is, and this is the place where he/she will be taken care of (where he/she will be enumerated). A person may be absent from her residence place for a variety of reasons, such as:
Health (hospitalized)
Business (business trip)
Family reasons (visiting a relative, participating to a wedding ceremony, and so forth)
Occupation (commercial traveler; truck driver)
Tourism (trip for vacation)
Camps (training, sojourn).
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In the case of an absence for such reasons, and after proper enquiry on the household member concerned, the census enumerator must write down the person in the appropriate line of the questionnaire for his/her household, with the mention "RA" in the corresponding box.
3. Visitors (VI)
The persons who stayed effectively with the enumerated household during the reference night (the night preceding the first day of the census), but who are not resident because their usual residence is located elsewhere, are visitors. For them, one must write down "VI"; these persons must be visiting for less than six months.
3.1.6 Other special cases
This paragraph deals with the enumeration of homeless persons, or persons living in the street, especially in cities such as Kigali. Special arrangements were made to enumerate fully these persons. These arrangements comply with three main concerns:
Laws and regulations in force, and the tight collaboration between all persons concerned with the census activities;
The action of census supervisors, with the help of authorities at all levels;
The awareness and advertisement campaigns for the census operations made in large quantity all over the country.
All the instructions relative to the census of institutional households appear all along this manual.
1. Foreign diplomats or representatives of international organizations resident in Rwanda are not directly concerned with the census. However, their service personnel will be enumerated as everybody. Workers who go back to their home every day will be enumerated at their place, whereas those who stay overnight at their employer's place will be enumerated there.
2. Foreigners who work in Rwanda will be enumerated if their duration of stay exceeds six months (RP or RA), whereas if their duration of stay is shorter than six months, they will be enumerated as visitors (VI).
3. Rwandese diplomats posted abroad, and living abroad, will be enumerated with the help of their files at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
4. Students abroad will be enumerated in their families in Rwanda, without taking into account their duration of stay (RA).
5. Other workers abroad, such as the seasonal workers, will be enumerated in their families in Rwanda, without taking into account their date of departure (RA).
6. Foreign students who are studying in Rwandese establishments will be enumerated as the other persons living in the country.
7. Civil servants who are on official trips abroad will be enumerated as persons usually resident but not having spent the reference night in their households.
