Houselisting Operations Timeline (State Windows) UPSC relevant
Unlike Population Enumeration, which is synchronised nationally to one reference moment, Census 2027's houselisting phase is staggered: within the April 1 – September 30, 2026 national window, each State/UT government chose its own 30-day field period, preceded by its own 15-day self-enumeration window.
Goa, for example, ran self-enumeration April 1–15, 2026; Assam's window opened August 2, 2026, per PIB — meaning some states finished houselisting by early summer while others are completing it only in September 2026, the final month. This flexibility accommodates monsoons, harvests, festivals and exams. The staggering is legitimate by design: houselisting data (houses, amenities, assets) describe stock characteristics, not a point-in-time population, so strict simultaneity is unnecessary — but it means 'when is the census in my state?' has 36 different answers for Phase 1.