Tamil Nadu gears up for Census 2027; house-listing likely to start after Assembly election

Tamil Nadu is gearing up for Census 2027, as Chief Secretary N. Muruganandam chaired the first meeting of the State-level coordination committee at the Secretariat on Monday (February 2, 2026).

The self-enumeration process and the eventual house-listing and housing-census process are likely to start after the Assembly election. 

At the first meeting, coordination among various stakeholders, including State government departments, and notification of census officers were discussed, Director of Census Operations (Tamil Nadu) M. Sundaresh  Babu said. About 1.5 lakh officials, including enumerators and supervisors, are expected to take part in the process.

The house-listing and housing-census process is likely to commence in June or July. This will also be the first digital census. Each of the households would be asked 33 questions from the questionnaire by enumerators. There will also be an option for self-enumeration, and the questionnaire could be obtained after registering oneself on the portal (to be notified later).

“Once they fill up the details, an ID will be generated. When the area- or street-level enumerator visits, the ID should be given and he/she will use the app to check and validate,” Mr. Babu said. After the self-enumeration process that will last 15 days, the house-listing and housing-census process will commence and go on for 30 days. Officials are finalising plans to train the enumerators, the supervisors, and other officials who will be involved in the process.

All the staff members at the Directorate of Census Operations in Chennai have been trained. Four staff members of the Chennai office underwent training as national trainers. Lead trainers, master trainers, field-level trainers, enumerators, supervisors, and others will be trained, Mr. Babu said.