The decennial Census of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881. Post 1949, it has been conducted by the

Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, founded in 1961 by Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs, for arranging, conducting and analysing the results of the demographic surveys of India including Census of India and Lingui ...

under the Ministry of Home Affairs,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act. The last

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

was held in 2011, whilst the next was to be held in 2021. But it has been postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Historically, there has been a long time between collection of data and dissemination of data.

Census of India during British Rule

List of censuses conducted in India before independence: * 1872 Census of india * 1881 Census of India * 1891 Census of India *

1901 Census of India The Census of India prior to independence was conducted periodically from 1865 to 1941. The censuses were primarily concerned with administration and faced numerous problems in their design and conduct ranging from the absence of house numbering ...

* 1911 Census of India * 1921 Census of India * 1931 Census of India * 1941 Census of India

Census of Republic of India

List of censuses conducted in India after independence: * 1951 Census of India * 1961 Census of India *

1971 Census of India The 1971 Census of India was the 11th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1872. The population of India was counted as 547,949,809 people. Population by state Information The schedule contained 35 questions. See also * ...

1981 Census of India The 1981 Census of India was the 12th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1872. The population of India was counted as 685,184,692 people. Population by state Religious demographics ;Population trends for major religious ...

* 1991 Census of India *

2001 Census of India The 2001 Census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871. The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females. Total population increased by 18 ...

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

2021 Census of India The 2021 Census of India, also the 16th Indian Census, is intended to be carried out in 2023. In April 2019, a data user conference was held and it was announced that 330,000 enumerators would be enlisted and that they would be encouraged to us ...

References

Stamps issued by India Post

External links

* {{Asia topic, Census in Demographics of India