It's wild how much can shift in 16 years—India's overdue census might finally drop some numbers that'll reshape how we think about the world's biggest population. Back when they last counted heads, smartphones weren't even mainstream yet. Now we're looking at a completely different economic beast.

What's actually interesting here? Fresh demographic data could tell us where consumption patterns are headed, how digital adoption's really playing out in tier-2 cities, and whether that young workforce everyone keeps hyping actually materialized. For anyone tracking emerging markets—crypto adoption included—this isn't just statistics. It's a reality check on whether 1.4 billion people are moving the way analysts keep predicting, or if the ground truth looks messier than the projections.