Houselisting For Census 2027 To Begin From April 2026

New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday informed that the first phase of Census 2027, houselisting operations, will be conducted between April 1 and September 30, 2026, across all states and Union Territories. The exercise will be carried out over a 30-day period, with the specific schedule to be decided by each state and Union Territory.

According to a notification issued by the Union ministry of home affairs, there will also be an option for self-enumeration, which will be available for a 15-day period immediately before the commencement of the house-to-house houselisting operations.

In the notification, Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan stated that the houselisting operations of the Census of India 2027 would be conducted nationwide during the stipulated window, followed by self-enumeration where applicable.

The decennial census exercise, originally scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, houselisting and housing census from April to September 2026, followed by population enumeration in February 2027. The houselisting phase involves systematic listing of all buildings, houses and households to create a reliable framework for population enumeration.

The government has earlier announced that Census 2027 will also collect caste data electronically during the population enumeration phase. The last comprehensive caste-based census was conducted during the British period between 1881 and 1931, and caste enumeration was excluded from all Census exercises after Independence.

The decision to include caste enumeration was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30 last year.

Census 2027 will be India’s first fully digital census and will be conducted by nearly 30 lakh enumerators. Data will be collected using mobile applications compatible with both Android and iOS platforms to ensure improved data quality and accuracy.

As per Census 2011, India’s population stood at 1,210.19 million, comprising 623.72 million males (51.54 per cent) and 586.46 million females (48.46 per cent).