As South Sudan builds back, here’s how a census can help

When South Sudan became independent in 2011, the new country needed the world’s help.

Hollowed out by decades of war and poverty, it didn’t have enough of many things fundamental to making a country work: schools and roads, hospitals and cell towers, sewers and water pipes.

But how many of those things it needed was fuzzy, because there was no up-to-date record of how many people actually lived in South Sudan, let alone who or where they were. The Sudanese government had conducted a census in 2008, but war and migration meant its figures went quickly stale.