The first phase of Census 2027 in Delhi — Houselisting and Housing Operations (HLO) — concluded, officials said on Monday. A total of 54.98 lakh households were enumerated during the month-long exercise, laying the groundwork for the second phase of population enumeration, officials added.

Enumerators identified 75.98 lakh houses across 45,863 houselisting blocks (HLBs). Officials said the door-to-door exercise ended as per schedule on Sunday, adding that the process of digitally syncing physical maps is expected to be completed within the next few days.

More than 52,000 enumerators and supervisors, predominantly teachers and government officials, were deployed for the exercise.

“Data collected in this phase provide the framework for the second phase. Ascertaining the number of commercial and residential structures, as well as households, will help us assess the manpower and planning required for the next phase in which the population will be counted,” said an official.

He added, “This phase focused on household-level information such as living conditions, assets and amenities. The next phase will collect details for every household member. We now have the house counts and mapped blocks that will guide that exercise.”

Of Delhi’s 13 districts, South West recorded the highest number of households at 6.26 lakh, followed by North East (6.25 lakh) and West (5.89 lakh).

In terms of the total number of ‘houses’, South West district topped the list with 8.05 lakh structures, with New Delhi (1.03 lakh) at a distant second.

Each structure with an address is counted in the Census as a ‘house’ while a household is defined as a group sharing a kitchen.

An HLB typically covers 160 to 180 houses and 600 to 800 people.

Timeline of events

The exercise was completed in New Delhi district, which falls under the jurisdictions of the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment Board, on May 15, with enumerators covering a total of 63,050 households across 585 HLBs.

Across the remaining 12 districts, which are governed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Census enumerators recorded 54,35,510 households and identified 74,96,276 houses across 45,278 HLBs.

‘Numbers may change’

“Some structures counted now may be demolished by the time the next phase begins while new ones may come up. Since the HLBs have already been demarcated, such changes will be updated in the next phase,” another official said.

The number of HLBs may also be revised based on the final count of houses and households.

Most of the data have already been uploaded through the HLO app and synced with the Census Management and Monitoring System portal while the digitisation of hand-drawn maps and their integration with satellite-based digital maps are nearing completion, added the official.