ECONOMY
Census will be conducted in two phases from March 2027, caste to be counted
- IBJ Bureau
- Jun 05, 2025
The Centre has announced that the next nationwide census will commence from March 1, 2027.
The Population Census-2027 will be conducted in two phases, along with enumeration of castes, the Union Home Ministry has announced.
“The reference date for Population Census-2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2027. For the Union Territory (UT) 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 the first day of October 2026,” the ministry has said in a statement.
The Census is being carried out after a gap of 16 years as the last one was held in 2011. Over 30 lakh enumerators and their supervisors are likely to be engaged to carry out the mega exercise.
The population of the country according to Census 2011 was 121.02 crore, of which 62.37 crore (51.54 per cent) were males and 58.65 crore (48.46 per cent) were females.
It will also be the first digital census giving the citizens an opportunity to self-enumerate.
The last comprehensive caste-based count was done by the British between 1881 and 1931. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011 under the United Progressive Alliance government did collect caste data, but it was never fully published or utilised.
Bihar and Telangana have conducted caste surveys in the last three years.
Report By
View Reporter News