Enumerators will start knocking on doors across most of India on January 25, 2027, to count every resident for the national Census, under a gazette notification issued on Friday, October 30, by Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan. The house-to-house count will run until February 28, and a revisional round to catch anyone missed will follow from March 1 to March 5.
Key dates
- January 10 to 24, 2027: households can choose to fill in their own details online before the enumerator visits.
- January 25 to February 28: door-to-door population enumeration.
- March 1 to 5: revisional round.
- Reference moment: 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027. The population figure will reflect the country as it stood at that instant.
The notification was issued under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, read with the Census Rules, 1990.
Which areas are left out of this schedule
The January-February window does not apply to Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, or the snow-bound areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab and Uttarakhand, which go to the polls early next year, will be counted ahead of the rest of the country: their self-enumeration portal is due to open on November 16, with door-to-door visits starting December 1 and the exercise ending by January 5, 2027. The count in Ladakh and the snow-bound areas was completed by September 30. In Manipur, still affected by ethnic violence, the exercise has been put off with no new date.
What will be asked
This phase gathers details about each individual, unlike the first phase, which recorded housing conditions, amenities and assets. Enumerators will put around 40 questions to households. Thirteen of them are new, covering caste beyond the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the birthplace and date of birth of both parents, the number of bank accounts, digital literacy, passport and driving licence details, and, where available, mobile, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers.
Those who self-enumerate will receive a unique ID to share with the enumerator, who will then verify the entry during the visit. The online form is meant to be available in 16 languages.
Why it matters
The last census was held in 2011, which means policy, welfare budgets and planning have leaned on figures that are now more than 15 years old. Census 2027 will be the country’s first fully digital census, with data collected through mobile apps, and the first since Independence to record caste for all communities, a decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on April 30, 2025. Until 2011, systematic caste counting covered only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Centre has set aside ₹11,718.24 crore for the exercise, which will cover 36 states and Union Territories, over 7,000 sub-districts and about 6.39 lakh villages.
How we got here
The government first notified the census in June 2025, fixing March 1, 2027, as the reference date. The houselisting phase began on April 1 this year and was completed across the country, except Manipur, by September 30. States have begun reviewing their preparations for the second phase, including staff training and digital tools, and the expanded caste data is expected to give a far more detailed picture of the country’s caste groups once results are published.
