New Delhi, October18: India will conduct a pre-test for the first phase of the 2027 Population Census from November 10 to 30, covering selected sample areas across all States and Union Territories, the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner said in a notification on Thursday.
Citizens will also have the option to self-enumerate between November 1 and 7, marking the first step towards what will be India’s first digital Census and the first to include caste enumeration since independence.
The notification, issued by Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, said the pre-test will cover only the Houselisting and Housing Census phase, indicating that the methodology for caste enumeration is still being finalised.
The pre-test aims to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed questions, data collection tools, training, logistics, and field operations ahead of the nationwide Census exercise scheduled to be held in two phases between April 1, 2026, and February 28, 2027.
In 2019, a similar pre-test for the planned 2021 Census—which was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—covered more than 2.6 million people across 76 districts in 36 States and Union Territories, involving 6,000 enumerators and 1,100 supervisors.
According to the notification, issued under the Census Act, 1948, States have been asked to finalise any changes to administrative boundaries, such as districts or tehsils, before December 31, 2025, when boundaries will be frozen for the enumeration.
The Census 2027 marks the country’s first population count since 2011, after the 2021 exercise was delayed amid pandemic disruptions. The government had formally notified its intent to conduct the Census on June 16, 2025. Officials said the upcoming pre-test will serve as a crucial step in testing India’s transition to a digital, self-enumerated Census model.
