Population Census-2027

The Union Ministry on 4th June announced that the Population Census-2027 will be held in two phases beginning October 1, 2026 and March 1, 2027.

• This will be the first Census since 1931 to capture granular caste data, beyond the broader classifications of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) that have been enumerated in every post-Independence Census.
• According to the announcement by the Ministry of Home Affairs, “the reference date for Population Census-2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March, 2027.
• For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October, 2026.
• The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990.
• The last Census of India was also conducted in 2011 in two phases, namely i) Phase I – House Listing (HLO) (1 April to 30 September 2010) and (ii) Phase II – Population Enumeration (PE) (09 February to 28 February 2011) with reference date – 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2011.