The first phase of Census 2027 -- the House Listing and Housing Census (HLO) -- has been completed in 23 states and Union Territories so far, according to a government statement issued on June 16, 2026. A 15-day self-enumeration process is currently underway in Kerala and Nagaland, to be followed by a field operation starting on July 1 and continuing until July 30. Field operations for this phase commenced in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday and are already underway in Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh. The Census exercise, costing Rs 11,718 crore, is the eighth since Independence and is being conducted in two phases -- the first stage is house listing and housing census, while the second stage is the population census. The housing listing phase started on April 1 and will continue till September 30, systematically listing all structures, houses, and households to provide a framework for population enumeration. For the first time, the exercise is digital, with enumerators using a special mobile application. Enumerators will physically visit each house and ask citizens 33 questions about basic facilities, the head of the household, and ownership status. Citizens have also been given a self-enumeration platform on a website where they can answer the notified questions and generate an ID. The second phase -- population enumeration -- will be conducted in February next year and will include caste-related questions. The reference date for Census 2027 is March 1, 2027, except for Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas where it is October 1, 2026.