The 2027 Census data will be available early, as the exercise will be conducted digitally, said the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India on Monday. This would be India's first-ever digital census.
Data for the census will be collected using Mobile Apps (both Android and iOS) in English, Hindi and regional languages. Enumerators/Supervisors will use their own mobile device for data collection.
"Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the Census process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data," said the RGI in a post on X. Furthermore, the Census 2027 will have an option for Self-Enumeration through a dedicated web portal which will be available for both phases of the Census.
It'll be India's 16th Census overall and eighth since independence. It holds immense importance as the first Census after 2026 can be used as the basis to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies, according to the Constitutional mandate. The next general election is due in 2029.
According to the schedule, the House-Listing operation will begin on April 1, 2026, followed by the Population Enumeration phase starting on February 1, 2027, during which the castes of household members will also be recorded.
The reference date for most of the country will be 12 am on March 1, 2027, while Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will use 12 am on October 1, 2026.
To conduct and manage the exercise in the world's largest democracy, the RGI has established a three-tier training system, national trainers, master trainers and field trainers, to prepare roughly 3.4mn enumerators and supervisors.
States and Union Territories have also been instructed to finalise any boundary changes to districts, tehsils and police station limits by December 31, 2025, as Census rules require a three-month gap between freezing administrative units and the start of enumeration. They are requested not to make changes in administrative boundaries between 1st January, 2026 to 31st March, 2027.
The 2027 Census data will be available early, as the exercise will be conducted digitally, said the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India on Monday. This would be India's first-ever digital census.
Data for the census will be collected using Mobile Apps (both Android and iOS) in English, Hindi and regional languages. Enumerators/Supervisors will use their own mobile device for data collection.
"Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the Census process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data," said the RGI in a post on X. Furthermore, the Census 2027 will have an option for Self-Enumeration through a dedicated web portal which will be available for both phases of the Census.
