On this page 1. Data Sources 2. Arithmetic Verification Protocol 3. Amber Data Note Policy 4. Dual-Citation Practice 5. Known Limitations Sources

1. Data Sources

Figures on LiberiaData come from three tiers of official Liberian government and statutory records. Population and area figures are not estimated or modelled by LiberiaData; they are compiled directly from the agencies below, cross-checked against each other, and presented with their source stated.

Source	What it provides	Where it appears on the site
LISGIS Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services	The 2008 and 2022 Population and Housing Censuses. The 2022 census is used as the primary current reference for county, administrative district, clan, and settlement-level population by sex, area, and density; 2008 figures are retained for historical comparison where relevant	Population tables, administrative district profiles, county profile cards
NEC National Elections Commission	Electoral district boundaries, registered voter figures, and electoral district counts, which are distinct from administrative district boundaries	Electoral district tables, Administrative District vs. Electoral District comparison boxes
CDA County Development Agenda	The official county-level administrative record covering development priorities, governance structure, and county-specific planning data	Governance sections, county background narratives
MIA and LLA Ministry of Internal Affairs, Liberia Land Authority	Administrative boundary verification and locality naming, used alongside LISGIS and NEC in the 2022 Administrative Boundary and Locality Verification Exercise	Boundary descriptions, cross-referenced in Sources sections

Why three different district counts can all be correct

New users often ask why Liberia's district counts differ depending on which agency is asked: 73 Electoral Districts under NEC, a historical statutory figure of 136 Administrative Districts, and 156 Administrative Districts under the 2022 LISGIS census count. None of these figures is wrong. They answer three different legal and enumeration questions. LiberiaData shows all three side by side with their source and definition rather than collapsing them into one number that would misrepresent one framework as authoritative over the others.

2. Arithmetic Verification Protocol

Before an administrative district, clan, or settlement figure is published, it is checked against the county and national totals it should sum into. Where a sub-total in a LISGIS table does not reconcile with the published aggregate, the figure is recomputed, the recomputation is documented, and the discrepancy is flagged to the reader rather than quietly corrected or quietly republished.

Grand Bassa County, worked example: the LISGIS district table listed St. John River City with a total of 4,273 and Kpaoegbarn with a total of 1,162. Neither figure reconciled with the published county total. Checking against the county aggregate showed the correct values were 14,273 and 41,162, consistent with a dropped leading digit in the source table. The Owensgrove administrative district, which LISGIS does not itemize separately, was then derived as the county-total residual once the corrected district figures were subtracted. All three figures, the two corrections and the derived residual, are documented in an on-page data note rather than published as unremarked LISGIS output.

The three-step check applied to every district table

1
Sum administrative district or clan sub-totals and compare against the published county total

2
Cross-check the county total against the corresponding national LISGIS aggregate

3
Where a residual or gap exists, derive it explicitly and label it as derived rather than directly enumerated

The same check applies to area and density figures, where area divided by population should reproduce the published density within a reasonable rounding tolerance, and to administrative versus electoral district counts, which are checked against each other but never merged into a single figure.

3. Amber Data Note Policy

When a figure shown elsewhere, whether on an earlier version of this site or on a source document, conflicts with the verified correct figure, it is not overwritten invisibly. An amber data note is added directly on the page, next to the figure it concerns, so the correction is visible at the point of use rather than buried in a changelog.

Amber Data Note

Example, as it appears on county pages:
Data Note: Owensgrove. LISGIS does not itemize this administrative district separately. The figure shown here is a derived residual, county total minus itemized districts, see the Verification Protocol above, and should be read as such rather than as a directly enumerated census figure.

When an amber note is applied

A published figure does not reconcile arithmetically with its parent total, see Section 2
A figure is derived rather than directly enumerated, such as aggregation gaps, residuals, or urban-area rollups like "Greater Montserrado"
A live or historical version of a page shows a value that differs from the verified source, for example a capital city spelling, a district count, or a founding year
Two official sources disagree and a judgment call was required to select which figure to display

An amber note stays on the page as long as the underlying ambiguity in the source data remains unresolved by the issuing agency. It is a visible caution flag, not a hidden footnote.

4. Dual-Citation Practice

Every data-bearing page on LiberiaData carries two layers of citation working together: an inline reference at the point a claim is made, and a full Sources section at the foot of the page listing the complete provenance chain for every figure on it.

Layer	Purpose	Format
Inline citation	Ties a specific number or claim in the body text directly to a source at the moment the reader encounters it	Superscript reference immediately following the claim, cross-referenced to the Sources list
Expanded Sources section	Gives the full institutional chain behind the page, including the aggregator role LiberiaData plays where it is not the originating authority	Right-justified, italic, one source per line, grouped by category: national, county-level, boundary and mapping, historical, aggregator

Why both layers matter: an inline citation lets a reader verify a single claim without reading the whole page. The expanded Sources section lets a grant reviewer or institutional partner audit the page's entire evidentiary basis in one place, including the cases where LiberiaData is aggregating several official sources rather than originating the data itself, which is stated explicitly rather than left implied.

5. Known Limitations

These are published openly rather than left for a visitor to discover on their own.

Ten of Montserrado's fifteen administrative districts have no standalone LISGIS enumeration because urban areas are aggregated under "Greater Montserrado." This is documented on the relevant page rather than papered over with an estimate.
Where a 2008 or 2022 census figure and an older statutory figure diverge, as with administrative district counts, both are shown with their governing framework rather than one being deleted.
Reconciliation of historical or secondary-source errors is limited to what county and national totals can arithmetically confirm; LiberiaData does not carry out independent field enumeration.

This page is reviewed and updated as LISGIS, NEC, or CDA issue new data, using the same protocols described above.

Sources:

Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), 2008 and 2022 Population and Housing Censuses, Final Results

National Elections Commission (NEC), Electoral District Boundary Records, necliberia.org

County Development Agenda (CDA), Government of Liberia Development Planning Framework

Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Liberia Land Authority (LLA), 2022 Administrative Boundary and Locality Verification Exercise

LiberiaData.com, Internal Data Verification and Editorial Protocol, last reviewed July 2026