The Community Survey 2016(CS) is a large-scale survey that happens in between Censuses 2011 and 2021. The main objective is to provide population and household statistics at municipal level to government and the private sector, to support planning and decision-making. The last Community Survey was conducted in 2007.

Stats SA will visit approximately 1.3 million sampled households across the country. Unlike a census, not every household will be visited; only those that are sampled. This is the biggest exercise that Stats SA will undertake outside of the census.

Approximately 10 000 contract field staff will be appointed over a six-week period (7 March to 22 April) to visit homes and collect data. Mop-up operations, to ensure that as many households are enumerated as possible, were completed in 7 of the 9 provinces on 06 May 2016. Mop-up operations will continue until 13 May 2016 in Gauteng and Western Cape.

Some homes will be visited more than once if they are chosen to be part of an Evaluation Survey that will be conducted to verify the quality of the information collected. The Evaluation Survey will run from 16 May to 03 June 2016.

For information on how to identify Stats SA CS 2016 fieldworkers please click here