More than 16 million respondents across the country will be interviewed for a national rural, agricultural and fisheries census conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) from July 1.

Nguyen Van Lieu, deputy chief of GSO and member of the census steering board, said the respondents would be categorised into four groups: rural households and agricultural and fishery households in urban areas; households engaged in large-scale farming; People's Committees at the commune level; and "sample" households in rural areas.

Lieu said all of the 15.44 million rural households and 800,000 others engaged in agriculture and fisheries in urban areas would provide basic information about household development, while 15,900 who owned large-scale farms would supply data on the farm-based (large scale farms) economy.

Officials from 9,094 People's Committees at the commune level would provide information on socio-economic infrastructure in their localities, while data collected from 75,000 households selected randomly would help launch specific studies, he added.

The census would gather information needed to assess policies and come up with fresh orientation for agriculture and rural development in the future.

Initial findings of the census would be made public this December, and the official results announced in the third quarter of 2012, he added.

The last national rural, agricultural and fisheries census was conducted in 2006./.