Problems of population census:
- High Cost of Census: Censuses are supposed to be conducted at a 10 year interval.
- The high cost of conducting census has made it impossible for West African countries to conduct censuses at regular intervals.
- Bad town planning and inaccessibility of some areas: In many developing countries street and houses are not properly numbered. This makes it difficult for census officials to locate people for enumeration.
- Shortage of census officers:In many developing countries there are very few qualified census officers. During census all kinds of people are used without any proper training. This makes census figures inaccurate.
- Customary beliefs: Certain beliefs in West Africa work against census. In certain cultures people are not counted.
- Religious belief/Practice: Some people use religion, e.g. Islam to prevent actual headcount which affect reliability of data provided.