Census 2027 Begins with Digital Self-Enumeration

Blitz Bureau

NEW DELHI: Census 2027, to be conducted in two phases, has begun in multiple states from April 1. This will be the 16th Census in the series and the 8th since Independence. In the first phase, house listing and Self-Enumeration will be carried out. The Self-Enumeration facility will be conducted over a 15-day period between April 1 and August 31, with the schedule varying across States and Union Territories.

The second phase, Population Enumeration, will focus on collecting individual-level data, including age, gender, occupation, literacy, and caste details. The caste enumeration will be done in the second phase of the Census. After each State and Union Territory carries out the Self-Enumeration, the house listing operations will be conducted over a 30-day period till September 30.

The self-enumeration portal will be available in 16 languages.

Addressing the media in New Delhi on March 30, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan further informed that the questions for the first phase have already been notified, and the questions for the second phase will be published in due course.

He said that Census 2027 will be conducted through digital means. The data will be collected through a mobile application, and an option for selfenumeration will also be available to the public. He said that a web-based portal will be used to manage and monitor various activities of Census 2027. The Commissioner further added that the House Listing Block (HLB) creation will be carried out through a web mapping application.

Narayan also informed that the Union Cabinet had approved a total outlay of Rs 11,718.24 crore for the Census in December 2025. Administrative boundaries were frozen as of January 1, 2026, and a pre-test of the first phase was conducted across all states and Union Territories in November last year.