Census 2027 notification

Notes

• The Union government has notified 40 questions for the second phase of Census 2027, including a new open-ended column for caste enumeration.
• The 2027 questionnaire includes 13 new data fields compared to the 29 questions in the 2011 Census.
• New data fields include spouse’s name, nationality, digital literacy, permanent address, bank accounts, passport, driving licence, mobile number, and Aadhaar/voter ID details.
• The caste enumeration uses an 'open column' methodology where respondents declare their caste, differing from the pre-prepared list approach used in some state-level surveys.
• The 2011 Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) was conducted outside the purview of the Census Act, 1948, and its data was never released due to reported reliability issues.
• Census 2027 is conducted under the Census Act, 1948, by the Office of the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India.
• The exercise involves two phases: Housing and House Listing Operations (HLO) and Population Enumeration.
• Self-enumeration is introduced as an option for the first time, available from August 17-31.
• Reference dates for population count vary by region: October 1, 2026, for snow-bound areas and March 1, 2027, for the rest of the country.

Part of a longer story

This is day 6 of 18 in Caste enumeration in Census 2027, which has been running since 7 July 2026. Reading it whole is usually worth more than reading today alone — the exam asks how something developed.

• Ladakh caste census Before
• Census 2027 population enumeration After
• The whole story 18 entries