Census 2027 head count to run from 25 January to 28 February in most of India
A gazette notification sets the dates for house-to-house enumeration in most states, with online self-enumeration from 10 January and a few states and regions counted on a separate schedule.
The Global Sun Desk ·
The Centre has fixed the dates for the population count in Census 2027. Across most of the country, house-to-house enumeration will run from 25 January to 28 February 2027, according to a gazette notification issued on Friday, 30 October, by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
The reference date for the count is 00:00 hours on 1 March 2027. A revisional round to check and correct entries will follow from 1 to 5 March.
Self-enumeration first
Households can fill in their details online before an enumerator calls. The self-enumeration window runs from 10 to 24 January, ending just before the door-to-door round begins. The Pioneer reported that Census 2027 will be India's first fully digital count, with answers entered on a mobile app, and that forty questions have been notified for this phase, caste among them.
The last census took place in 2011. The one planned for 2021 was put off because of the Covid-19 pandemic, so the new exercise will give India fresh population data after 16 years. Telangana Today noted that the figures are expected to feed into policy planning, resource allocation and welfare schemes.
Who is counted later, and who earlier
The 25 January to 28 February schedule does not apply everywhere. The notification leaves out Manipur, which stays excluded until further notice, along with Ladakh, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, plus the snow-bound pockets of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Not all of these are being counted late. Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab and the parts of Uttarakhand that are not snow-bound, all heading into elections, had already been given an earlier timetable by a notification dated 5 September. Households there will self-enumerate from 16 to 30 November, enumerators will visit from 1 December to 4 January 2027, a revisional round will run from 5 to 9 January, and the reference date is 5 January 2027. The Pioneer reported that Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of J&K, Himachal and Uttarakhand were enumerated in September, against a reference date of 1 October 2026. Manipur, where census work has been deferred, falls under neither timetable.
Telangana Today reported that officials pointed to the difficulty of reaching snow-bound regions in winter, and to the need for states facing elections to keep their administrative machinery free for polling. The Indian Express noted that Manipur, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh all face elections early next year.
A political dispute over enumerators
The announcement came after a rule change on 16 October, when the Centre changed the Census Rules, 1990, so that a state can name "any person" it deems suitable as an enumerator, The Pioneer reported. The Congress has criticised the amendment. Jairam Ramesh, its general secretary, accused the Prime Minister and the Home Minister on Friday of "orchestrating Census 2027 in a way so as to determine citizenship", which he called "blatantly illegal".
For households, the practical point is the calendar: the online option opens on 10 January for most of India, while people in the states on the earlier schedule are asked to self-enumerate from mid-November.