Colombo, Nov 1 : Sri Lanka on Wednesday launched its new population and housing census, which is an exercise done once in 10 years, the President's Media Division (PMD) said. The PMD said the census was initiated at the Presidential Secretariat which was listed as the first building to be recorded, reports Xinhua news agency. "A remarkable feature of this year's census is the incorporation of tablet computers, alongside traditional printed documents for data collection," the PMD said. The population and housing census is a vital source of data for shaping national policies, public administration and understanding demographics, ethnic distribution and other social characteristics. The census encompasses housing information at the village official division level. This comprehensive undertaking includes assigning a unique number to every building and obtaining GPS coordinates for each structure. Additionally, it results in digitised maps at the village official division level. The Department of Census and Statistics had planned to conduct a population and housing census of the country in 2021 but postponed it due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The South Asian country's last census was conducted in 2012. /IANS