New Delhi, India: India will launch the world's largest census on Wednesday, with more than three million officials to take part in a vast counting exercise over the next year.
The South Asian nation, home to an estimated 1.4 billion people, faces mounting challenges in providing electricity, food and housing to its growing population.
India's government calls the $1.24 billion count a "gigantic exercise of national importance" that could support "inclusive governance and evidence-based policy formulation".
The enumeration will also include the politically sensitive issue of caste, the millennia-old social hierarchy that divides Hindus by function and social standing.
The upcoming census presents a formidable logistical challenge. India's 2024 general election, the largest democratic exercise in history, was conducted in seven phases over six weeks.
The census will be carried out in two phases.
The first phase, beginning Wednesday and running until September, will involve a staggered, month-long enumeration to record details of housing and amenities.
The process will combine door-to-door visits with an option for online self-enumeration, linking to an app drawing on satellite imagery and available in 16 languages.
A second phase will focus on population data including demographic, social and economic details as well as caste.
In high-altitude Himalayan regions -- including the territory of Jammu and Kashmir -- it will take place ahead of October 1, 2026, before snowfall begins.
India has not conducted a census since 2011, after the 2021 round was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the last census, India's population was 1.21 billion.
In 2023, the United Nations estimated that India had surpassed China to become the world's most populous country, with more than 1.42 billion people.
