Interviewer instructions
5.1.3 Household Member
The fundamental statistical unit of observation and study in a general census of the population and dwelling is the individual household member, who is an element of the population being studied.
In effect, the individuals to be counted are identified in ordinary households and in collective households as either residents or visitors. The totality of individual residents in Guinea constitutes the legal Guinean population.
The people considered residents are all those who usually live in the household - that is, have been living there for at least six months; or all those who have the intention of living in the household for more than six months (if they don't satisfy the first condition). Residents are categorized as "present residents" if they have spent the night preceding the enumerator's visit to the household. However, they are categorized as "absent residents" (resident absent) if they have not spent the night preceding the enumerator's visit to the household. A person who is an "absent resident" in the household should, if he/she is still present in the Republic of Guinea, be classified in another household as a "visitor."
A "visitor" is any person who has spent the night preceding the enumerator's visit to the household in the household when in fact he/she does not normally reside there. The visitor is not a member of the household as such:
Please note: the distinction between "present resident" and "absent resident" rests essentially on [the individual's] presence in the household the night preceding the enumerator's visit, and not on the presence of the individual at the moment of the census. Nonetheless, if resident persons who did not spend the night in question in the household are present at the moment of the interview, it might be recommendable not to count them as absent residents (RA) so as not to offend them. You will then register them as present residents (RP).
