Census 2027 headcount from Jan 25; Manipur kept out till further notice

The house-to-house population count for Census 2027 will take place across most of India from January 25 to February 28, 2027, but Manipur will not be part of it until the Centre issues a fresh declaration, according to a notification issued on Friday.

The notification, signed by Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, fixes 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027 as the reference date for the count.

Key dates

• Self-enumeration: January 10 to January 24, 2027, just before field enumeration begins
• House-to-house population enumeration: January 25 to February 28, 2027
• Revisional round: March 1 to March 5, 2027
• Reference date: 00:00 hours, March 1, 2027

Who is left out

The schedule applies to all states and Union territories except Manipur (till further declaration), Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Assembly elections are due early next year in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

That means Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura are all covered by the January-February window.

Why Manipur is different

The Centre had already deferred the house-listing phase of the census in Manipur earlier, after civil society organisations protested and demanded that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) be updated before any census work. That decision followed a high-level review of the situation in the state chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, The Economic Times reported. The Manipur High Court had also put census-related work, including house-listing, on hold until a further notification from the Registrar General.

Former chief minister N Biren Singh welcomed Friday's notification on X, saying the voices of Manipur's indigenous people had been heard and describing the deferral as a welcome step amid the long-standing demand for an NRC before the census. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The biggest headcount yet

This will be the eighth census since Independence. It is being held in two phases: house-listing and housing census first, followed by population enumeration. The exercise was originally due in 2021 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the operation.

India's last census, in 2011, counted 1.21 billion people, of whom 62.32 crore were male and 58.75 crore female, in 24.95 crore households.

No new date has been announced for Manipur.