Census to be Conducted in Two Phases Starting From April 2026 and Ending in February 2027, Says Govt
New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday (December 2) informed the Parliament that Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, with the first phase being held between April and September 2026, which will be followed by the second phase in February 2027.
Responding to a question by Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said that phase one will be House Listing and Housing Census while phase two is Population Enumeration (PE), reported Press Trust of India.
The first phase from April to September 2026 will be conducted in a period of 30 days, as per the convenience of the respective state/Union territory governments.
"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," said Rai.
Rai said that the census questionnaire has been prepared after taking inputs and suggestions from different ministries, departments and organisations.
He added that the census has a history of more than 150 years and learnings from previous census exercises were also taken into consideration for conducting the next census.
Replying to a separate question, Rai added that caste enumeration will also be done in the census.
Census 2027 will be conducted through digital means in which data will be collected through mobile apps along with online provision for self-enumeration, said Rai.
In April, the Union government had announced that caste data will be enumerated along with the decadal census, but had not provided any timeline for when the decadal census or the corresponding caste census will be conducted.
A nationwide caste census has been a longstanding demand of opposition parties and was a central issue during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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