New Delhi, June 4:The Government of India has announced that the next nationwide census will be conducted in two phases beginning March 1, 2027, and will, for the first time, include a comprehensive enumeration of castes.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated on Wednesday, confirming that Census 2027 will follow different timelines across regions, taking into account logistical and climatic conditions.
“It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with the enumeration of castes,” the MHA said.
For most parts of the country, the reference date for the census will be 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027. However, for Ladakh and snow-bound regions of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the census reference date will be 00:00 hours on October 1, 2026.
To formally initiate the process, the Centre will publish a notification in the Official Gazette on June 16, 2025, under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, which lays down the legal framework for India’s decennial census.
The previous census, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the upcoming exercise in 2027, the government aims to undertake one of the most extensive data collection initiatives in its history.
India’s census operations are carried out under the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990. The last census was held in 2011, in two distinct phases: Phase I: House Listing Operations (April 1 to September 30, 2010) , Phase II: Population Enumeration (February 9 to 28, 2011)
The reference date then was 00:00 hours of March 1, 2011, except for snow-bound areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, where enumeration was conducted in September 2010 with a reference date of October 1, 2010.
