Census 2027 will consist of Phase I–House Listing and Housing Census, followed by Phase II–Population Enumeration (PE).
Census 2027: The Union government has announced that Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, and first phase of the exercise will begin in April 2026 and conclude in September of that year.
How Census 2027 be conducted?
Responding to a query by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the the first phase of Census 2027 will be conducted from April to September 2026, within a period of 30 days in accordance with the convenience of state/UT governments, while the second phase will be held in February 2027.
The census will consist of Phase I–House Listing and Housing Census, followed by Phase II–Population Enumeration (PE), the minister informed.
“Population Enumeration will be done in February 2027 with reference date 00:00 hours of 1st March, 2027 except for the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where it will be done in September, 2026 with reference date 00.00 hours of 1st October, 2026,” he said.
According to the minister the census questionnaire is finalised on the basis of inputs and suggestions from different ministries, departments, organisations and census data users before each exercise, and noted that the census has a history of more than 150 years and learnings from previous exercises are taken into consideration for conducting the next census.
When will caste census be held?
In a separate question, Rai informed that caste enumeration will also be done in the census as decided by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on April 30 this year.
The minister informed Census 2027 will be conducted through digital means in which data will be collected through mobile apps along with online provision for self-enumeration.
(With PTI inputs)
