Multiround vital statistics survey in the Lao People's Democratic Republic

The author discusses the multiround survey program begun in Laos in 1988 as a supplement to the first national census, taken in 1985. "The project had two broad objectives. The first was to provide training and support to selected village chiefs as a way of strengthening their role as civil registrars.... The second broad objective was to set up a system of statistical collection, involving regular visits to selected households, to provide good estimates of vital statistics." Some 300 villages or urban clusters were surveyed to determine their size and growth. The results were used to project future changes in the population's characteristics.