Understanding India through data

How India’s demographics are changing, with falling fertility and slowing population growth, and what the future holds.

Population growth Ageing

Life expectancy

A child born in India today can expect to live much longer than her parents and grandparents. In this piece we examine what life expectancy is, how it has grown, and where inequalities in outcomes persist.

Rukmini S

Fertility Births

Fertility in India

India has reached a key demographic milestone - fertility in India is now below replacement levels. In India's southern and western states, fertility levels are now particularly low. Birth rates are projected to fall further.

Rukmini S

Population growth Ageing

Is India's demographic dividend over?

India's relative youth has set it up for demographic and economic opportunities. But what is the demographic dividend, and is India still in a position to take advantage of it?

Rukmini S

What makes Indians sick, what makes them better, and the historic transformations in Indian health.

Availability of healthcare professionals

The WHO recommends 44.5 doctors and nurses for every 10,000 people. While India is close to this threshold in aggregate terms, there are wide disparities in the availability of healthcare professionals between states and between the country's rural and urban areas.

Nileena Suresh

Communicable diseases Diseases

Childhood immunisation

Vaccines have played an essential role in reducing infant mortality in India. In this piece, we look at the vaccines currently given to children in India, their coverage, and identify gaps in the immunisation programme.

Nileena Suresh

Mortality Diseases

Infant mortality in India

The number of children who do not survive until their first birthdays has fallen dramatically. Yet parts of the country have relatively high Infant Mortality Rates, and the first week of a child's life remains a time of high risk.

Nileena Suresh

The sectors that make up the Indian economy, how they compare with other countries, and how they have changed over time.

Economic growth Poverty

The World Bank's estimates of poverty in India

In June 2025, the World Bank revised its global poverty lines, producing new estimates for the levels of poverty in India and the rest of the world. In this piece, we look at the different poverty lines, their impact on poverty numbers for India, and how they were constructed.

Abhishek Waghmare

Industry Manufacturing

Unorganised manufacturing

Most of India's manufacturing workforce is in the unorganised sector, working in small, family-run units. In this piece we look at the size and scale of unorganised manufacturing in the country, what these units make and whom they employ.

Abhishek Waghmare

Industry Manufacturing

India's manufacturing hubs

Factories in India are concentrated regionally. While food products, textile and apparel are the biggest employers, the manufacture of metals drives value added. Each of these industries has its own regional hubs.

Ishan Deodhar • Abhishek Waghmare

Access to household assets and amenities across India, differences between groups and how it is changing.

Education Higher education

Graduates in India

A growing share of adult Indians now have an undergraduate degree. In this article, we examine what India's undergraduates are studying, where they graduate from, and how this compares with other countries.

Abhishek Waghmare

Amenities

Fuel for cooking

A majority of Indian families now use Liquefied Petroleum Gas for cooking, up from just 20% two decades ago. However, a substantial share of households, particularly in poorer states and in rural areas, are still reliant on firewood.

Rukmini S

Amenities Poverty

Housing conditions

There has been a steady increase in the share of Indian families who live in safe and durable houses. The way durability is defined affects the numbers, and variations are driven not just by wealth, but also by geographical factors.

Nileena Suresh

The transformations in India’s workforce, including women's participation, the nature of work, youth unemployment, and job growth.

Informal sector

India's informal sector

Who are India's informal workers? We study the work they do, the sectors they are in, and the wages they are paid, among other aspects.

Abhishek Waghmare

Informal sector

How big is India's formal sector?

Using two approaches to how informality is defined, we estimate the size of India's informal sector, as well as examine whether the sector has grown over time in India.

Abhishek Waghmare

Employment Education

Vocational training

Getting workers ready for their jobs through specialised training is seen as an essential part of closing the 'skill gap'. Yet only a small minority of working-age Indians receive formal vocational training, while many more learn informally on the job or from their families.

Nileena Suresh

How Indians experience violations of the law, and access ways to get justice, including the workings of the police, prisons and courts.

Crime

India's prison population

India has one of the world's largest prison populations, but a low incarceration rate. However, the vast majority of its prison population has not yet been convicted of a crime.

Ameya Bokil

Courts Crime

Judicial pendency in India

There are 54 million cases pending before India's judiciary, and every year more cases are filed than disposed of. We look at what types of cases are awaiting disposal, where most are pending, and what's keeping them there.

Ameya Bokil

Courts Crime

Homicide in India

India has seen a decline in murder rates since the 1990s. This fall is seen across Indian states, but is driven by a decline in the number of male victims of murder.

Ameya Bokil

Changes in climatic conditions, tracking emissions, the energy transition, and transformations in agriculture and food security.

Temperature

Regional temperature trends in India

Despite a clear national warming trend, the various regions of India are seeing temperatures change in very different ways. Some of the largest changes are being felt in the most ecologically sensitive areas.

Juhi Chatterjee

Rainfall Agriculture

Seasonal rainfall

While rainfall in India appears to be stable over time at the aggregate level, there is significant variation in seasonal rain in India. In particular, the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons have seen major changes.

Juhi Chatterjee

Rainfall Agriculture

Long-term trends in rainfall

India's agriculture and economy are heavily dependent on rainfall. We look at over a century of data to identify long-term trends in how rainfall patterns in India are changing.

Juhi Chatterjee

How the data we use is collected, what the definitions of official statistics really mean, and the methodology, including its flaws.

Informal sector

Measuring the informal sector and informal employment

The informal sector can be defined in a few different ways. In this piece, we examine the international definitions around informal employment, how these are applied to Indian statistics, and how these approaches compare with each other.

Abhishek Waghmare

Births Mortality

Is India accurately counting births and deaths?

Getting the count of births and deaths right is essential for accurately estimating population growth in India, and crucial for planning. Yet the datasets on which these estimates rest are imperfect. We analyse the possible sources of errors, and suggest which datasets are best to use, and when.

Nandlal Mishra

Poverty

Changes in the World Bank's measurement of poverty in India

In the absence of Indian poverty estimates for over a decade, the World Bank's estimates have become the key source of data for India. We track the methodological changes that underpin the Bank's new estimates, and their impact on Indian data.

Abhishek Waghmare