NEW DELHI, Dec 2: India’s next Census will be conducted in two phases between April 2026 and February 2027, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, marking the country’s first fully digital Census with provisions for mobile-based data collection and self-enumeration.
Responding to a question from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Rai said the exercise will begin with Phase I: House Listing and Housing Census, which will be conducted over a 30-day window anytime between April and September 2026, depending on the convenience of state and Union Territory administrations.
Phase II: Population Enumeration will be held in February 2027 with the reference date set at 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027. However, in Ladakh, snow-bound areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, population enumeration will be conducted earlier—in September 2026, with the reference date set at 00:00 hours on October 1, 2026.
Rai highlighted that the Census questionnaire has been prepared after incorporating feedback from ministries, departments, organisations and stakeholders. He underlined that the Census, with a legacy of over 150 years, is refined every cycle based on earlier learnings.
In response to another question, the minister confirmed that caste enumeration will also be carried out, following approval by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on April 30, 2025.
The 2027 Census will be India’s first digital-first population count. Data will be collected through mobile applications, and citizens will have the option to participate via online self-enumeration. The process will be monitored through a dedicated national census web portal.
A pre-test of Phase I—House Listing and Housing Census—has already been conducted in selected areas across states and Union Territories as per the Gazette notification issued on October 16, 2025.
Officials said Assam has already begun piloting the digital Census model from November 10, placing it among the first states to adopt the new system.
The government has termed the upcoming Census an important step toward modernising population data collection and strengthening evidence-based policy-making across the country.
