Census 2027 begins with two firsts: digital capture, and the option to count yourself

India's census opened on April 1 with two things it has never done before. Data will be captured digitally, and households can file their own details online before an enumerator reaches the door. The President completed the first self-enumeration of the day; the Prime Minister, the Vice-President and the Home Minister followed.

The exercise is Phase I of the Census of India, 2027 — the House Listing and Housing Census, which records the condition of houses, the amenities available to a household and the assets it holds. It does not count people. That happens in Phase II, population enumeration, scheduled for February 2027, with the reference date fixed at midnight on March 1, 2027. Snow-bound and non-synchronous areas of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will be enumerated in September 2026 instead.

1. 1.Rs 11,718.24 crore — the outlay approved for Census 2027, covering enumerator honoraria, training, information technology infrastructure and logistics.
2. 2.33 questions — the Phase I questionnaire notified in January 2026.
3. 3.30 days — the length of the house-to-house field operation each state and union territory sets for itself inside the six-month window.
4. 4.15 days — the self-enumeration window that opens immediately before that field operation.

Who goes first, and what Karnataka's window looks like

Self-enumeration opened on April 1 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim, plus the New Delhi Municipal Council area and the Delhi Cantonment Board. Their 30-day house-to-house enumeration runs from April 16 to May 15. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and Haryana begin their own self-enumeration on April 16 and their field operations from May 1 to May 30.

For Karnataka, that means a specific fortnight. A resident who wants to file details from home has until April 15; an enumerator calls between April 16 and May 15. The self-enumeration response is not the end of the process — an enumerator still visits, verifies what has been submitted and completes the household record. A self-enumeration ID is generated that residents are advised to keep and show at the visit.

This is the sixteenth census and the eighth since Independence, a round originally scheduled for 2021 and postponed because of the pandemic. It will also be the first to enumerate caste, a decision taken by the Cabinet in April 2025; that enumeration belongs to Phase II. Data collected under the Census Act, 1948 is governed by strict confidentiality provisions.