Seventh Census result awaited, but work to begin on eighth

NEW DELHI: India will begin work on the eighth economic census to get an updated account of formal and informal establishments across the country, which also helps prepare national accounts. This is even as the result of the seventh census is not yet available.

“The idea is to prepare for the next economic census with better coordination with the states to have updated results in a timely manner,” said a person familiar with the exercise.

The thinking is that the approval of results of the seventh economic census are taking time, so the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) would like to start work on the next census, the above quoted official stated.


India has not had an economic census for nearly a decade. The sixth economic census was conducted in 2013, results of which were made available in 2016.

The data collection for the seventh economic census started in 2019 and could only be finished in 2021, owing to Covid.