After it conducts next year's census, the Department of Statistics will be able to tell you information about all sorts of population trends in The Bahamas.

However, despite plans to interview every household in the nation, the data will not include how many illegal immigrants reside in the country.

Director of Statistics Kelsie Dorsett said the reason is simple: The department doesn't intend to ask.

?That is not our job,? Dorsett said. ?We don't discriminate. We want to count them because they are contributing to our community and they are utilizing our services and we want to know the extent of the use whether they are legal or illegal.?

The Department of Immigration would admit that it has no clear idea of how many illegal immigrants reside in The Bahamas, despite widespread acknowledgment among government officials that there is a serious problem.

Dorsett said that type of data collection is more a function of immigration officials or the police force.

She added that it would be counterproductive for the department to even try to determine the status of the people it interviews.

?We don't try to determine status and we try to discourage that kind of approach because we don't want to scare them off. We don't want when we go in the field for them to say 'oh no, they're coming to see how many of us are here to deport us',? she said.

?We don't ask them their status. What we do is ask them their citizenship and most of the time they will come and show us their passport to indicate what their citizenship is. But that does not tell you their status. We take nationality into account, but because you may be Haitian or Chinese, it doesn't mean that you've been living here illegally.?

Dorsett said that the men and women who will conduct the census are much more concerned with how long the person has lived in their home and in the country.

?During the interview, we find out if those people are usual residents - meaning if they [have been] living here for the past six months or if they haven't been living here for the past six months, if they intend to stay for six months or longer,? she said, adding that many countries do not ask the respondents to the census their residency status.

The Department of Statistics is currently conducting a precensus test in New Providence and Grand Bahama in an effort to fine tune the substantive survey before it officially begins next May.

Almost $6 million is budgeted for the census to be conducted over the next two years, according to Dorsett, who estimates the department will need to hire about 1,800 people by next February in order to carry out the two-month exercise.

New elements to the census might include questions about the environment, deaths in the household, the impact of crime on households and the emergence of technology (such as Internet usage) in households throughout the country, according to Dorsett.

?We also ask marriage questions and questions about the union because there is a difference in that sort of thing,? she said.

?In terms of individual history, we only do that for females in the fertility section ? how old they were when they had their first child, how old they were when they had their last. That gives us important data.?

Dorsett said the data collected in the last census conducted in 2000 took about 18 months to collate. She said the department is hoping to release the results much sooner after the next census.