The Sharjah Department of Statistics and Community Development, DSCD, has announced that the recently launched "Tahdeeth" project has so far contacted more than 13,000 Emirati families, included in the 2015 population census, during the first 15 days of the implementation of the project, covering the period from 7th to 22nd October.

The department made 13,000 calls from its call centre, leading to updating the data of 6,700 Emirati households totalling 55,000 citizens, while the number of incomplete family households was 5,800.

The process of making the phone calls is expected to finish by the end of the first week of December, while the field work to collect data from some families, including the elderly, is expected to be completed by the end of the second week of December, 2017.

Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, Chairman of the DSCD, said, "The launch of the statistical project is in line with the directives of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to provide integrated statistical information on the living conditions of the emirate’s citizens, covering their health, economic, social and housing status."

He pointed out that providing a comprehensive and fully updated database on the living conditions of citizens will help decision makers when formulating their future strategic decisions that meet people’s aspirations and ambitions, thereby serving the emirate’s flourishing economic and social status.

DSCD was tasked with carrying out a comprehensive population survey in 2013 and then conducted the general census of population and housing in 2015. It says that the launch of the "Tahdeeth" project two years after the last population census is necessary to update the demographic information about the emirate’s citizens in order to assess their living conditions.