Populations are not distributed equally across a country; neither are manifestations of social and economic development, such as school enrolment, economic activity, access to services and infrastructure. With development policies, plans and programme initiatives generally geared towards providing equitable access to opportunities to improve and sustain the wellbeing and livelihood of its people, policy-makers and planners require comprehensive data and information to make informed decisions. To facilitate this process and make official population and other socio-economic data and information more accessible and user-friendly and relevant to both producers and key users, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, through its Demography/Population Programme, has developed a prototype Population Geographic Information System for use in its member countries and territories.