About NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics, formerly known as Southern Sudan Centre for Census, Statistics and Evaluation (SSCCSE) is the official statistical agency of the Government of South Sudan. It is mandated by the Transitional Constitution to collect, analyse and disseminate all official economic, social and demographic statistics.

Under the provisions of the CPA and the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, SSCCSE was assigned responsibility for conducting the Southern Sudan section of the 5th Sudan Population and Housing Census in 2008. While the 2008 Census remains the largest undertaking by the SSCCSE, it has carried out other large nationally representative surveys, most notably the 2006 and 2010 rounds of the Sudan Household Health Survey (SHHS) and the National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS), 2009. It has also carried out other statistical activities as evidenced by the publication of the annual statistical yearbooks in 2009 and 2010. 

Fast Facts

• Total Population of South Sudan is 13.3 million (2020 estimated  population)
• Total Area of South Sudan is 644,329 sq. km
• More than half (51%) of the population is below the age of eighteen.
• 72% of the population is below the age of thirty
• 83% of the population is rural
• 27% of the adult population is literate
• 51% of the population live below the poverty line
• 78% of households depend on crop farming or animal husbandry as their primary source of livelihood
• 55% of the population has access to improved sources of drinking water

Governance & Management

The new NBS will be governed by a Board of Directors and a Director General both of whom will be appointed by the President of South Sudan. The Board of Directors will be the highest policy making body of the NBS; and will formulate policies and set its internal regulations, priorities, standards and criteria for all censuses and surveys to be carried out in South Sudan. The organization, structure and powers of the NBS and terms and conditions of service of its personnel shall be regulated by law which will soon be tabled before Parliament.

Before its establishment under the Transitional Constitution, the official statistical agency of Southern Sudan was known as the Southern Sudan Centre for Census, Statistics and Evaluation (SSCCSE); and like its successor, was set up under the Interim Constitution of the then Southern Sudan in 2005.