The multistage census started with the first stage taken in 1953. It covered 248 cities and towns in Divisions of Myanmar and 4 towns in Kachin State which in all comprise almost the whole the urban area. Also included was the Chin Special Division excepting Paletwa Subdivision which by that time was still occupied by the insurgents.
The second stage census taken in 1954 extended into 2143 village tracts in the Divisions of Myanmar and 1016 village tracts in the Kachin State.
To obtain as much detail information as possible of the people and their main economic activities it was planned to scientifically combine and take the following censuses in one operation at that time:
Enumeration for all the censuses extended over a period of 1½ months in all.
First of all Complete Population Census was taken. With the guidance of the census block maps and structure lists enumeration was carried out in two weeks.
In this census all the persons residing permanently at the place of enumeration were enumerated by households.
All the households canvassed in a block were serially numbered in the order they were visited.
Inmates of institutions like hospitals, jails, asylums, public homes, monasteries, police and army unit lines were enumerated by institutions separately from the households.
A frame for use in the censuses of Industry, Cottage Industry, Home Consumed Production and Agriculture was also created by asking three trigger questions, namely:
When a person in any household was reported as a farmer, the same was asked to furnish information relating to each farm operated by him for the purpose of completing a Farm Schedule.
In this manner the Agriculture Census was enumerated by visiting all the households in which there were farmers.
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