The census found that 4,031,589 people were now living in Indonesia's westernmost province. The figure was down by 238,411 on the figure compiled before national elections in October 2004.

An official from the statistics office in Aceh, Husnul Khalik, told AFP that the census was not supposed to give a final death toll for the catastrophe on December 26 last year.

"However one can make an estimate based on the results of the census," he said, without giving any further details. The figures were released on Thursday.

The Red Cross said in a June report that 131,029 people were killed in Indonesia when the tsunami slammed into its shores, and 37,066 remained missing, presumed dead.

It has not provided more recent figures and there has been no estimate of the number who have left the province after the disaster.

The census in Aceh involved some 7,000 surveyors who began work in August and was undertaken outside of Indonesia's standard once-a-decade national population survey program. The last of these was completed in 2003.

It was funded by the UN Population Fund and was also needed to provide accurate population data for elections.

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