Union Home Minister Amit Shah chairs a review meeting for the preparations of the upcoming census, in New Delhi on June 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI

The Union government will release the summary data from the next population Census about three to six months after the data collection is completed, according to sources in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). However, the more detailed schedules and granular data will still take three to five years to be released in phases.

Data collection for the next Census will be completed by March 1, 2027.

“The broad data should be out in three to six months after the collection is done, especially because this time the collection is being done entirely digitally,” a senior official in MoSPI told The Hindu. “But it always takes about three to five years for the entire set of schedules and granular data, district-wise, to be released. That will be the case this time around as well.”

‘No 2031 Census’

Since Indepence, the population Census has generally been a decadal exercise — released in 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011. This trend was broken in 2021, initially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the next Census to be conducted in 2027, this schedule will be broken once again for the decade starting 2031.

“There will be no administrative capacity to hold the Census in 2031, since the data from the 2027 one will still be in process,” the official explained.

Drop-down caste menu

The official added that the caste component of the Census exercise would likely incorporate a drop-down menu containing the various castes in India, and the respondents will have to choose their castes. For this to work, the government first needs to compile a master list of all the various castes in India.

“People are not likely to fudge their castes or, to an extent, religion, since that is known pretty publicly,” the official said. “It’s not like income levels, where people are more likely to not give the correct picture.”

Overall, however, the official pointed out that the Census exercise was predominantly driven by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Registrar General of India, with minimal involvement of MoSPI.