First phase of 2027 Census announced
The first phase of the Census will take place between April 1 and September 30, 2026, as per a notification by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on Wednesday. “Houselisting operations will be conducted between 1 April 2026 and 30 September 2026 across all States and Union Territories, during 30 days specified by each State/UT,” the notification read further.
“...The Central Government hereby declares that the housing listing operations of the Census of India 2027 shall take place between 1st April 2026 and 30th September 2026 in all states and Union Territories during the period specified by each state and Union Territory.
“There shall also be an option for self-enumeration, which shall be conducted in 15 15-day time period just before the start of house-to-house listing operations of 30 days,” a notification issued by Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said.
Houselisting, a part of the Census, is a vital initial step to systematically identify and count every building and household. It involves collecting fundamental data on dwelling types, materials, amenities, including kitchen types, mode of communication, transport,and assets (TV, internet).
According to the notification, each state and Union Territory will conduct house listing operations for a continuous 30-day period within this six-month window, with the exact dates to be decided by the respective local administrations.
This will be the first digital Census and the first to enumerate caste in independent India. Additionally, the government had said the Census will have a focused and wider publicity campaign for nationwide awareness, inclusive participation, last-mile engagement and support for field operations.
The mammoth exercise to give a headcount of the country's population will be conducted in two phases -- houselisting and housing census from April to September 2026; and population enumeration (PE) in February 2027.
The Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the population enumeration phase, the government had said earlier. The last comprehensive caste-based count was done by the British between 1881 and 1931. Caste was excluded from all census operations conducted since Independence.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30 last year.
In the first ever digital Census, conducted by around 30 lakh enumerators, data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android as well as iOS versions to ensure better quality data. The population of the country, according to Census 2011, was 1,210.19 million of which 623.72 million (51.54 per cent) were males and 586.46 million (48.46 per cent) were females.
