Last night we told you about the big reveal of the first census in 14 years.
It's a sweeping digest of Belize's population and household characteristics. Last night, in part 1 of our story - we gave you the main population figures, and tonight we look at what the census said about households - more than one hundred thousand of them across Belize:
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"So in 2010, there were 79,658 households in the country. In 2022, that number increased by almost 40% to 110,719 households."
And what's happening to these households? Well, they are increasingly being led by women.
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"We had about two-thirds of households that were headed by male, by a male, which was down from 72.3% in 2010. Conversely, the proportion of female-headed households increased from 27.7% in 2010 to a third of all households in 2022."
And the households are also getting smaller:
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"The average household size decreased nationally from four persons in 2010 to 3.6 persons in 2022. Similar to 2010, Toledo had the highest average household size in 2022, while Belize had the smallest."
"We found that overcrowded housing reduced nationally from 14.3% in 2010 to 8% in 2022. When we talk about an overcrowded household, that is one in which there are more than three persons per bedroom in that household."
And the appliances. And devices in those households have seen a major shift:
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"More households in 2022 own stoves, cell phones, washing machines, and refrigerators compared to 2010. However, we saw that ownership of televisions, stereos or radios, and microwaves decreased between the two censuses."
No televisions and radios because that 20th century technology has all but been replaced:
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"More than half of all households in 2010 reported that they had cable TV or satellite services. 12 years later however that number dwindled drastically to only one in five households reporting that they had cable TV."
"Similarly in 2010 we found that over 20% of households reported that they had a fixed telephone line. However in 2022 less than 5% of households had this service. Conversely we saw that internet access increased significantly as more than 70% of households reported that they had internet access in 2022 compared to only 13.6% in 2010."
And along with modernized communication - the modern Belizean has an incurable taste for bottled water:
Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Dir. General - SIB
"The predominant source of drinking water was purified water for both periods, but it increased significantly from 51.7% in 2010 to 74.3% in 2022. Almost three-quarters of households now use purified water as their main source of drinking water."
