Government Notifies 2027 Census; Enumeration to Begin in Snow-Bound Areas from October 2026

By A Staff Reporter

New Delhi, June 16: The Central Government has officially declared that the next census of India’s population will be conducted in the year 2027, marking the first such exercise in over 16 years. A formal gazette notification has been issued, laying out the timeline and geographic rollout of the massive enumeration effort.

According to the notification, census operations will begin on October 1, 2026, in the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, where weather conditions typically make early enumeration necessary.

The census process will then be carried out in the rest of the country from March 1, 2027. The move comes after the scheduled 2021 census was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent administrative delays.