Overview
- The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a Gazette notification on Friday that population enumeration will be held from January 25 to February 28, 2027, with the census reference date fixed at 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027.
- An optional online self‑enumeration window will open January 10–24, 2027, allowing households to submit information before enumerators conduct door‑to‑door verification.
- The January–February schedule excludes Manipur (deferred until further orders), the poll‑bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand, the Union territory of Ladakh and snow‑bound non‑synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
- The population form has expanded to about 40 questions, adding comprehensive caste details beyond SC/ST and fields for Aadhaar, mobile and voter ID numbers, raising interview time to roughly 20–25 minutes and increasing training needs for enumerators.
- Census 2027 will be run in two phases with a revisional round from March 1–5, is planned as India’s first largely digital census, carries a Union Cabinet outlay of about ₹11,718 crore, and is expected to shape planning and resource allocation once data are verified and published.