India

33 questions, one massive exercise: Census 2027 houselisting notified

January 22, 2026

33 questions, one massive exercise: Census 2027 houselisting notified India issued Census 2027 Phase I questionnaire, launching houselisting from April, covering housing conditions, amenities, assets and demographics, ahead of digital population enumeration and caste data collection in 2027 nationwide. AdvertisementCensus 2027 first phase to begin on April 1 with houselistingIndia Today News DeskNew Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 23, 2026 02:05 ISTEdited By: Nitish K SinghIndia’s long-delayed population count formally moved a step closer after Census India announced the issuance of the questionnaire for Phase I of Census 2027, covering houselisting and housing enumeration. In a post on X, Census India said the notification for the first phase has been issued, while the questionnaire for Phase II, population enumeration, will be notified later. The government on Thursday detailed 33 questions that enumerators will ask citizens during the houselisting and housing census, scheduled to begin from April 1. The questions were notified through a gazette notification issued by Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan. advertisement“The Central Government hereby instructs that all Census officers may, within the limits of the local areas for which they have been respectively appointed, ask all such questions from all persons on the items enumerated below,” the notification said, outlining the scope of information to be collected for Census of India 2027. The first phase will capture granular details about houses and households, starting with building and census house numbers, followed by the predominant material used in the floor, walls and roof.

April 1 with houselisting

Credit: Census 2027 first phase to begin on

Key Highlights

Enumerators will record the use and condition of the house, ownership status, number of rooms, and the number of people usually residing there. Information will also be collected on the head of the household, including name and sex, whether the head belongs to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or other communities, and the number of married couples living in the household. Beyond housing, the questionnaire extends to living conditions and consumption patterns.
Citizens will be asked about access to drinking water, lighting, toilets, wastewater outlets, bathing and kitchen facilities, and cooking fuel, including LPG and PNG connections. The survey will also document access to modern amenities such as radio, television, Internet connectivity, laptops, computers, mobile phones and smartphones, along with the type of vehicles owned and the main cereal consumed by the household.
A mobile number will be collected for census-related communication. The houselisting phase will be conducted over a 30-day period to be notified by each state and Union Territory between April 1 and September 30.
A 15-day window for self-enumeration will be available just before the start of field operations. Officials say houselisting is a critical preparatory step.
It systematically maps all buildings, houses and households across the country to create a reliable frame for the population enumeration phase. Census 2027, a Rs 11,718-crore exercise, will be conducted in two phases: houselisting and housing census this year, followed by population enumeration in February 2027.

Sources

33 questions, one massive exercise: Census 2027 houselisting notified

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33 questions, one massive exercise: Census 2027 houselisting notified

Key Highlights

Sources

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