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The completion of Antigua and Barbuda’s long-awaited 2025 Population and Housing Census is facing growing headwinds, as persistent noncompliance from a segment of residents continues to throw up major barriers for frontline enumerators, national census officials confirmed this week.

Deputy Census Officer Tracelyn Joseph detailed the range of challenges field teams have encountered since enumeration work kicked off earlier this year. In multiple communities across the twin-island nation, workers have faced outright refusal to answer census questions, intentional efforts by residents to avoid contact, and even coordinated attempts to hide participation – with some people reportedly coaching family members to tell enumerators they are not home. Joseph added that even outreach outside residential properties has failed to win cooperation from a subset of holdouts, with these residents turning down participation when approached in public spaces.

Amid these widespread difficulties, however, there have been small signs of progress. Joseph noted that a number of residents who initially rejected involvement have softened their stance over time, choosing to cooperate after multiple return visits from enumerators.

Even as the field team works to win voluntary participation, officials are reminding the public that census participation is not optional. Under Section 17 of Antigua and Barbuda’s 2013 National Bureau of Statistics Act, all residents are legally required to complete the census. Those who fail to provide the requested information face severe legal penalties: fines of up to $10,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars, a prison sentence of up to two years, and an additional $1,000 fine for every day noncompliance continues after a conviction.

Joseph stressed that if widespread resistance does not abate, enforcement action will eventually be required to bring the census to a successful close. She also pushed back against common concerns that have driven nonparticipation, emphasizing that all individual data collected during the enumeration process is protected by strict confidentiality rules. No information will ever be released in a format that identifies individual respondents, she confirmed.

Census leadership has set a target of wrapping up the entire national enumeration exercise by the end of 2025. This is not the first setback the 2025 census has faced, however. Field operations have already experienced multiple delays since launching earlier this year, including a mandatory temporary pause during the country’s general election period earlier in 2025.

Officials reiterate that the final census data will serve as a foundational resource for the country, supporting evidence-based research, advancing educational initiatives, and shaping long-term development planning and government decision-making across every sector in Antigua and Barbuda.

Drawing parallels between the ancient biblical story of Nineveh and the modern social and political landscape of Antigua and Barbuda, opinion writer Yves R. Ephraim issues a stark call for nationwide reflection and repentance amid a growing tangle of social ills plaguing the Caribbean nation.

The story of Nineveh, as recounted in the Book of Jonah, sets the foundation for Ephraim’s argument. In that ancient narrative, God condemned the widespread, egregious wickedness that had taken root across the entire society, from the ruling throne to the most humble household, and sent the prophet Jonah to warn the people of coming destruction. The tale has two defining turning points: Jonah’s initial disobedience to God’s command, and the unexpected unified repentance of all Nineveh’s people, who humbled themselves immediately after hearing the warning and turned away from their harmful practices.

Ephraim argues that no fair observer can deny that Antigua and Barbuda is currently engulfed in its own crisis of pervasive wrongdoing, with a surging crime wave serving as the most visible recent symptom. He outlines a long list of interconnected social and institutional failures that he frames as moral evils eroding the nation’s foundation:

Rising rates of violent gun crime and child sexual assault have left the country reeling, while high-level government corruption has gone largely unchecked. The criminal justice system, he contends, acts as a revolving door that hands down minimal punishments to offenders and quickly returns them to communities to reoffend, undermining public trust in the rule of law. Public officials regularly engage in indecent speech and open disrespect for norms and citizens, while the state has seized private property from ordinary people. The electoral system, he argues, has been captured by special interests, turning a blind eye to open bribery and questionable distribution of state resources, with the hidden cost of these handouts ultimately passed to all citizens in the form of a higher cost of living.

Even cultural institutions are not spared criticism. Ephraim calls out lewd public displays during the annual carnival, which he says are not only endorsed by national leaders but actively participated in by them, alongside the rapid proliferation of adult entertainment venues. He connects these cultural shifts to a broader breakdown of personal respect among the nation’s youth. Compounding these issues is a staggering social statistic: more than 80% of children in the country are born to unmarried parents, a trend that deprives many young people of the stable, supportive environment they need to thrive, and has contributed to a growing mental health epidemic among youth that pushes many toward drug abuse, gang involvement, and antisocial behavior.

Ephraim pushes back against the common habit of ranking wrongdoing, framing some acts as major evils and others as minor, acceptable flaws. All wrongdoing, he argues, is equally corrosive, and all demands accountability. The nation has set aside a national Day of Prayer to appeal for divine intervention to rescue the country from the grip of crime and violence, but he stresses that prayer alone will be meaningless if the people of Antigua and Barbuda are not willing to change their behavior. Just as in Nineveh, repentance must be universal, sweeping from the highest government leaders down to every ordinary citizen, if there is any hope of turning the nation around.

He also challenges the Christian community in the country to step into its role, asking whether self-identified Christians are living as faithful examples, speaking out clearly against the evils plaguing society, or falling into the same disobedience that initially kept Jonah from delivering God’s warning. If Christians abandon their mandate to stand for righteousness and speak truth to power, Ephraim argues, the nation has little hope of change – just as Nineveh would have been doomed without Jonah’s message.

No segment of society is exempt from this call, he emphasizes. Every person, from top government officials to ordinary laypeople, must confess wrongdoing, seek mercy, and turn away from harmful practices. Echoing the biblical narrative, which emphasizes that God desires repentance rather than destruction, Ephraim notes that Jonah’s call was a legitimate act of criticism meant to give Nineveh a chance to change. The ancient city was corrupt from top to bottom, just as Ephraim argues Antigua and Barbuda is today. The only path from national brokenness to restoration, he concludes, is to hear that godly criticism, accept it with humility, and choose to turn away from wickedness. The piece closes with a prayer for a full national revival that can heal the nation’s divides and restore its moral foundation.