The Indian government is getting ready to start the census, which is a survey to collect information about the population, in 2025. This survey was supposed to happen in 2021 but was delayed for four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the census process is expected to last until 2026, with the collection of information happening over the course of a year.

The census usually happens every ten years to update the National Population Register (NPR), which keeps track of changes in the country's population. Because of the delay in the census, the schedule for future censuses might change too. The census in 2025 is expected to include questions about people's religions and social groups. It may also collect more information about specific groups within the general category and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST).

Lok Sabha seats will change after the census

After the census is finished, the government plans to do something called delimitation. This means they will change the number and boundaries of Lok Sabha seats based on the new population data. This process is expected to start after 2026 and should be done by 2028. It will give the government and the Election Commission time to use the latest population information. There have been more requests from opposition parties to include a caste-based census, but the government has not made any decisions about this yet.

The central government has decided to keep Mritunjay Kumar Narayan in his job as the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India until August 2026. This shows that the government is serious about starting the long-delayed census process soon.

In August, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the census will happen at the right time. He also said that this census will be done completely online, which means people will be able to share their information using a mobile app. This will be the first time the census is done entirely in a digital way.

The last census was held in 2011 and showed that India’s population was over 1.21 billion people, with a growth rate of 17.7 percent. The information collected in the upcoming 2025 census will be very important. It will help the government make decisions about national policies, change how many representatives are in parliament, and understand how the population is changing.