Understanding India through data

The landscape of the law in India

New

Law

We analyse ten years of case records - over 43 million in all - from all of India's subordinate courts to provide a unique picture of the most commonly invoked civil and criminal laws in India.

Ameya Bokil • Apoorv Anand

Latest work

Work

Salaried jobs in India

As countries grow and develop and their workers gain more skills, most jobs become salaried or regular wage jobs. While the share of salaried jobs in India is growing, salaried workers remain a minority, and many do not have the benefits typically associated with such work.

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

Measurement

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.

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.

Population

Life expectancy

Rukmini S

We make India accessible through data

Data For India is a public platform that turns complex government and institutional data into clear, research-backed insights

Understand India through data

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Find answers to your questions about socio-economic issues in India

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Get to the source

Understand how data is collected and what the definitions used in India’s statistics mean

Population

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.

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

Population growth Ageing

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

Health

Infant mortality in India

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

Mortality Diseases

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.

Indian children are among the shortest in the world. While the rates of child stunting have declined over time, a substantial share of Indian children, especially in poorer states and among marginalised groups, are stunted.

Nutrition Child health

Child stunting in India

Dairy consumption in India

Nutrition Food

Indians are consuming more dairy, and spending more of their food budgets on dairy products. But wealth affects consumption and gender gaps persist.

Economy

The World Bank's estimates of poverty in India

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

Economic growth Poverty

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.

Unorganised manufacturing

Industry 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.

India's manufacturing hubs

Industry Manufacturing

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

Work

Employment Female employment

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

Salaried jobs in India

Higher education Employment

What do India's graduates do?

A higher education is seen as a pathway to better jobs and wages. We examine the work that India's 140 million graduates do, and whether having a higher education is a guarantee of better employment.

Employment Female employment

The rise of 'custom tailoring'

One economic activity - tailoring - has come to play a significant role in Indian manufacturing, transforming women's employment in the sector in particular. We look at the growth of this activity, what tailoring work looks like, and what it means for India's manufacturing sector.

Living 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.

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

Amenities Poverty

Housing conditions

Computer ownership and usage

Technology

Household ownership of computers in India remains low, particularly in rural India. The share of Indian adults who report being able to use a computer is also growing very slowly.

Economic growth Household spending

Households assets in India

The ownership of assets is one way to understand living standards in a country. In India, TVs are the most commonly owned of four key assets.

Measurement

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

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

Poverty