page_title: South Sudan
section_title: 2008 census
hierarchical_section_title: South Sudan / Demographics / Population / 2008 census
context_page_description: South Sudan, officially known as the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. It is bordered to the east by Ethiopia, to the north by Sudan, to the west by the Central African Republic, to the south-west by Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south by Uganda and to the south east by Kenya.
  It gained independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition. Its capital and largest city is Juba. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known locally as the Bahr al Jabal, meaning "Mountain Sea". Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and was governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon broke out, ending in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed.
context_section_description: The "Fifth Population and Housing Census of Sudan", for Sudan as a whole, was conducted in April 2008. The census counted the Southern Sudan population at 8.26 million; However, Southern Sudanese officials rejected the census results of Southern Sudan because "the central bureau of statistics in Khartoum refused to share the national Sudan raw census data with the southern Sudan centre for census, statistics and evaluation."
  In addition, President Kiir "suspected figures were being deflated in some regions and inflated in others, and that made the final tally 'unacceptable'." He claimed that the Southern Sudanese population actually constituted one-third of that of Sudan, though the census showed it to be only 22%.
  Many southern Sudanese were also said to have been uncounted "due to bad weather, poor communication and transport networks, and some areas were unreachable, while many southern Sudanese remained in exile in neighbouring countries, leading to 'unacceptable results', according [to] southern Sudanese authorities." The chief American technical adviser for the census in the south said that the census-takers probably reached only 89% of the population.
caption: Woman in South Sudan
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