Census to be held on March 1, 2027; caste to be counted

A census official collects information. File. | Photo Credit: AP

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Wednesday (June 4, 2025) that population census along with the enumeration of castes will be conducted in two phases and the reference date of the people’s headcount will be 12 a.m. on March 1, 2027.

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India will be counting its people after a gap of 17 years and this will be the first digital Census. The last Census was held in 2011 and the subsequent exercise in 2021 was delayed indefinitely, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The notification for the intent of conducting the Census and the dates of the two phases will be “published in the official gazette tentatively on June 16 as per provision of section 3 of the Census Act 1948.”

On April 30, the Union Cabinet had decided to include caste enumeration as part of the next census exercise.

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The MHA said that 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 October 1, 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 conducted in 2011 in two phases. Phase I comprised House Listing (HLO) and was conducted from April 1 to 30 September 2010 and phase II known as the Population Enumeration was done from February 9- February 28, 2011.

Published - June 04, 2025 06:39 pm IST