Census 2027: When will officials visit your home and what will they ask?

India's second phase of Census 2027, covering individual population details, will begin on January 25 and continue until February 28, 2027. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced the schedule on Friday, also setting aside January 10 to 24 for self-enumeration, allowing residents to submit their details before enumerators visit their homes.

The population count will be followed by a revisional round from March 1 to 5. However, the schedule will not apply to all regions. Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have been excluded from the notification.

The reference date for Census 2027 has been fixed at midnight on March 1, 2027.

40 questions to cover demographic details

The second phase will focus on individual, social and economic information. Enumerators will use a household schedule containing 40 questions covering age, marital status, religion, caste, education, employment, migration and disability, among other details.

The exercise follows the first phase, which began in April 2026 with the House Listing and Housing Census. That round collected information on housing conditions, household amenities and assets.

First census since Independence to count all castes

One of the key features of Census 2027 will be comprehensive caste enumeration across communities. It will be the first census since Independence to collect caste details for all communities. Previous exercises systematically recorded information on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs approved the decision to include wider caste enumeration on April 30, 2025.

Census 2027 will also be India's first digital census, with data collection carried out using digital tools.

Rs 11,718 crore approved for exercise

The Centre has allocated Rs 11,718.24 crore for the nationwide exercise, which will cover 36 states and Union Territories.

The census will span 7,092 sub-districts, 5,128 statutory towns, 4,580 census towns and around 6.39 lakh villages. The population enumeration schedule will be followed by the revisional round in March 2027.