Seychelles hits 100,000 population mark for the first time, census stats say

Seychelles, known for its world-class beaches, is one of the smallest island states in the world, but its population is steadily growing. (Gerard Larose)

(Seychelles News Agency) - For the first time in its history, in 2022, Seychelles – an archipelago in the Western Indian Ocean – passed the 100,000 population mark with the latest census figures revealing a total of 100,447 inhabitants of which 84 percent are citizens of the country.

This shows a 9.9 percent increase from 2010 when the population was 90,945.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed the provisional figures for the first digital census conducted to its stakeholders including district administrators, health professionals and political figures.

The census to gather data on the population, households and voters in Seychelles started in April this year – two years later than it was initially scheduled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Up until the latest census had been held, the archipelago’s population was some 99,000 inhabitants – both Seychellois and non-Seychellois.

The latest figures further elaborate that there are now 53,927 male and 46,520 female inhabitants – with Cascade being the most populated district with 6,249 inhabitants.

The census was carried out faster than it was in previous editions as the information was collected digitally.

The information revealed today at the Eden Bleu Hotel, which NBS chief executive, Laura Ah-Time, said touched “everything concerning population – gender, the numbers etc.”

During the numerous presentations held on Wednesday, 31 August, NBS technicians explained the process of holding the census as well as some of the initial information gathered.

For instance, it was revealed that around five to 10 percent of households were unresponsive during the exercise due to various reasons among which were the refusal to answer questions or simply because the residents were not at their homes.

The digital census was carried out across the country but not all households wished to answer questions. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: All Rights Reserved

However, Ah-Time said that it was very important to show the public what information has been gathered as “this will help us in our future exercises, as people will realise that the information presented is rich and interesting”.

While the NBS has worked hard to ensure the figures in this census are as comprehensive as possible, there were certain areas of the country where households were not counted.

Paradoxically, Eden Island – which is a man-made island with luxury homes, where the census presentations were held – was not included in the survey as the officers had difficulties going into the homes there.

“We also realised that many of the residents had a holiday home on the island, which meant that their houses were empty since they were not in the country at the time,” she added.

Meanwhile, the NBS technicians also revealed that there were certain discrepancies in some of the initial figures gathered in this census. For instance, there are some 5,000 foreign workers who are Gainful Employment Permit (GOP) holders who are currently unaccounted for, according to the available permit records.

“We have a lot of cleaning and cross-referencing work with other databases that we will have to do now that we have the initial census figures,” explained Ah-Time.

Once all the legwork is completed, NBS will publish a more comprehensive and concrete basic census report by the end of the year.

“This will include descriptive statistics, tables and charts, detailing much more information than what was presented this morning,” she said.

NBS will also have a thematic analysis together with its overseas partners “where we will go deeper into analysing the data we collected when visiting the different homes in the country”.

The information will then be available on hand for any entity requesting the data – especially the various international organisations that Seychelles is a member of such as the United Nations (UN) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).

According to the NBS, the thematic analysis will cover richer data and it expects to have the information ready in 2023.