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Centre notifies two-phased Census 2027; headcount begins from October 2026
16 Jun 2025

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the notification for conducting the National Population Census in 2027.

As per the notification, the census will begin in the union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand from midnight on October 1, 2026.

For the rest of the country, the counting will begin at midnight on March 1, 2027.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed preparations for the upcoming census with senior officials in New Delhi.

Census to include caste enumeration
Phases

The Census will be conducted in two phases.

In the first phase (HLO), data on housing conditions, assets, and amenities of each household will be collected.

The second phase (PE) will gather demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and other details of every individual in each household.

The Census will also include a caste enumeration.

For the Census activities, around 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed along with 1.3 lakh Census functionaries.

Last Census was conducted in 2011
Deployment

This will be the 16th Census since its inception and the eighth since India's independence.

The next Census will be conducted digitally through mobile applications with a provision for self-enumeration.

Shah ensured that stringent data security measures would be implemented during the collection, transmission, and storage of data.

This will help ensure the privacy and confidentiality of individuals' information.

The last Census was conducted in 2011, and the population at that time was recorded as 1.21 billion.