Population census begins January 25, barring poll-bound states and snow-covered regions

Census 2027 is set to be held across most of India from January 25 to February 28, 2027, the Census Commissioner announced on Friday. The population enumeration will however not include poll-bound states and snow-bound regions. The reference date for the census shall be 00:00 hours of March 1, 2027, the official notification read.

The census will not cover Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand as assembly elections are due in these states and union territories early next year.

Ladakh and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will also not be surveyed during this period.

A notification issued by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner, stated that the "revisional round" of population census will be conducted from March 1, 2027, to March 5, 2027.

Before the door-to-door census begins on January 25, citizens will be given the option to self-enumerate between January 10, 2027, and January 24, 2027.

The census, the eighth since Independence, is being conducted in two phases: house listing and housing census, and population enumeration.

The decennial exercise, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Union Cabinet approved ₹11,718 crore for conducting the census, which will be the biggest headcount exercise.

The Centre has deferred house-listing operations for Census 2027 in Manipur, a notification issued by the RGI said last month.

India's last census was conducted in 2011 with a headcount of 1.21 billion people, including 62.32 crore males and 58.75 crore females.