Timor-Leste, the world's youngest country, is also the first country to successfully make comprehensive use of global positioning system (GPS) technology for its census. With 730 GPS units to record geographic position, census teams visited nearly 200,000 households across the country in July and August, pinpointing their locations and collecting invaluable data on demographic, economic, and social conditions.

The 2004 census was the first full tally of Timor-Leste's population since the country gained its independence in 2002. The final count by the enumerators shows a total population of 924,642 in 194,943 households. The census questionnaires have provided a wide range of information about Timor-Leste's people, including family size, quality of housing, ethnic group, languages, crops, livestock, education level, and literacy skills. Preliminary information about population down to the subdistrict level is already online at <http://dne.mopf.gov.tp/census/>.

The household GPS locations are linked to very accurate maps based on aerial photographs that are detailed enough to show individual houses. By analyzing the data in different ways, the government and other organizations can make informed decisions about service delivery, investment, and development. Using GPS also allowed the census managers from the National Statistics Directorate to improve their accuracy in a way never before possible: by checking the GPS points visited by the census teams against the detailed maps, managers were able to see areas that the enumerators missed and send them back to complete their surveys. This has improved the accuracy of the census results significantly.

USAID supported the Ministry of Planning and Finance in its preparations for the 2004 census with grants totaling $231,000 for an expert advisor, vehicles, equipment, and the printing of the census questionnaires and training materials in Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian, and English. Data from the census will help the government, NGOs, and the private sector better understand the economic, demographic, and social conditions of the country's residents and inform policy-making decisions at every level.