This paper examines Manipur’s census statistics for the period between 1991 and 2011. It argues that conventional demographic factors cannot explain the abnormal population growth rates reported in parts of northern Manipur, and that the abnormalities in the headcount are instead associated with competition for seats in the state legislative assembly. Manipur’s experience is used to draw attention to systemic problems related to the inadequacy of metadata supplied by the census, lack of guidelines for correction of census data, impact of political interference on data quality, and cascading effect of errors in fundamental statistics, such as headcount, on other government statistics.
