New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- India will conduct its next population census from January 25 to February 28, 2027, across most states and Union territories, with exceptions for regions facing elections and difficult weather conditions, according to a notification issued by the Census Commissioner on Friday.
The exercise will use March 1, 2027, at midnight as its reference date. Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Ladakh have been excluded from the announced schedule. Snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will also follow a separate timetable. Manipur's exclusion will remain in place until further orders.
The notification, issued by Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, said a revisional round would take place between March 1 and 5, 2027. Residents will also be able to complete self-enumeration from January 10 to 24, ahead of the house-to-house counting exercise.
Assembly elections are scheduled in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur early next year, making their exclusion from the current schedule significant. The eighth census since Independence will be conducted in two stages: house listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration. The decennial exercise was originally scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the nationwide exercise, which will be the country's largest population-counting operation. The Centre had also deferred house-listing operations in Manipur through a separate notification last month.
India's last census, conducted in 2011, recorded a population of 1.21 billion, comprising 62.32 crore males and 58.75 crore females. The country had 24.95 crore households at the time.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.