The government has not yet made a decision regarding updating the National Population Register (NPR), as stated by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. This announcement was made by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in response to a written question concerning the government's intentions to update the NPR before the Census-2027.

While a decision on updating the NPR remains pending, the government has notified its intention to conduct the Census, with the notification appearing in the Gazette on June 16, 2025. The Census 2027 is planned to be carried out in two phases. The initial phase will focus on the house listing and housing census, during which data on housing conditions, assets, and amenities of each household will be collected. The subsequent phase will involve population enumeration, gathering demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and other details of every person in each household. Notably, this census will also include caste enumeration.

The reference date for the Census will be March 1, 2027. However, for the Union Territory of Ladakh, and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be October 1, 2026.

The estimated financial outlay for conducting the Census is currently under finalization. The Ministry of Home Affairs had previously informed the Lok Sabha on July 22 that preparations for Census 2027 were underway. A two-day conference of Directors of Census Operations was held earlier in July to discuss the roadmap for the upcoming Census. This conference, held in New Delhi, saw participation from Directors of Census Operations, senior officials from state Directorates of Census Operations, and officers from the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Discussions during the conference covered various aspects, including the framework of administrative units, data collection via mobile apps, management and monitoring of census operations through the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, self-enumeration, and training of census functionaries.

The NPR was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. A notification regarding the intent to update NPR along with Census 2021 was issued on July 31, 2019.