Monday, March 20, 2017

Population data from 1966

Thanks to the online library of the National Statistical Office (NSO) I was already able to collect the population data from the censuses since 1960, all down to district level. Starting in 1993, the online population statistics from the registration office gives the yearly numbers down to subdistrict level. Thus I thought the only additional data I might be able to collect would be the earlier census data.

First page of 1966 report
But when I checked the eBook site of the Department of Provincial Administration in the vain hope to find a new edition of the Local Directory there, I instead found the annual population reports published in the Royal Gazette there, but to my surprise these started in 1966, and not 1993 as I thought before. Apparently, there was a change in the internal structure of the registration office - starting in 1993 the announcements were done by the Central Registration Office (สำนักทะเบียนกลาง), whereas from 1982 till 1992 the responsible office was named สำนักงานกลางทะเบียนราษฎร, and from 1966 till 1981 the announcements were done by the Ministry of Interior directly, and thus escaped my previous searches in the Royal Gazette.

So I now have to type in the numbers of these 27 announcements, training my Thai numeral recognition that way as they don't use any western numerals in these official announcements. I have already done 1966 and 1967, and in both announcements found one typo in the numbers - and since the older announcements don't include the total number for the whole country I cannot correct that mistake when translating into my XML structure. If anyone likes to use these numbers as well - they will be all in XML in the next weeks just like the 1966 XML - or could also create a Excel file if someone needs it...

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