Census 2027: Early Headcount in Four Poll-Bound States From December

The Registrar General of India has announced that population enumeration for Census 2027 will begin in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and parts of Uttarakhand from December 1, 2026, and continue until January 4, 2027. A revisional round is scheduled from January 5 to January 9, 2027.

Citizens in these areas can opt for self-enumeration between November 16 and November 30, 2026, according to the official gazette notification.

The early exercise is being conducted in states where Assembly terms end by May 2027, making elections likely early next year. Since a large number of government employees, mainly teachers, are involved in both census and election duties, conducting the two exercises simultaneously would be difficult, an official explained.

For Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the reference date has been set as October 1, 2026. Population enumeration in these regions will take place from September 1 to 30, with self-enumeration available from August 17 to 31.

For the rest of the country, excluding snow-bound regions, the reference date remains March 1, 2027, and population enumeration is likely to begin in February next year. This phase will collect data on demographic, socio-cultural, and economic parameters, along with migration and fertility details from each household.

The government has also deferred house-listing operations for Manipur, as per a separate notification issued by the Registrar General on Saturday.

Census 2027, the eighth since independence, is being conducted in two phases: house listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration. The exercise was originally scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the decennial headcount, which will be the largest such exercise in the country.