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and a place.

Our role: analysis and presentation

PopulationIndia is an independent publication. We organise, explain, visualise and analyse data published by government and other named sources. We do not conduct the official census, operate an identity register or issue official population statistics.

The Census of India / ORGI ↗, UIDAI ↗, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ↗ and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation ↗ are the official publishers for the government sources used here. Refer to the linked originals for authoritative tables, definitions and revisions. PopulationIndia has no government affiliation or endorsement.

Our explanations and calculations are identified separately from the published figures. A link to PopulationIndia can accompany a citation, but the underlying dataset should be attributed to its original publisher.

Official data beyond 2011

The data finder pairs each source with a question it can answer. Some profiles reproduce verified national indicators; others explain the scope of an official release and link to its tables.

Three dates, kept separate

• Reference period: the date or interval the data describes. Some survey measures refer to a period before fieldwork; indicator notes make this explicit.
• Publication date: when the publisher released the report. A report issued in 2026 can measure events in 2024.
• Source check: when PopulationIndia reviewed the cited release. This collection was checked on 11 October 2026 and is updated manually.

We retain provisional labels and coverage notes. Counts, projections, sample estimates and registered events are not combined into a single live population counter. Where a report’s tables could not be verified, its guide says so and no unverified numbers are reproduced.

Places and a wider population library

Our current state and UT profiles use Table 8 of the July 2020 government projection report, with a reference date of 1 March 2026. The combined Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu projection is our sum of two published source rows. The 36 displayed totals sum to 1,000 below the published India total; we retain the source values. Table 8 prints Goa at 1,599,000, while Table 21 prints 1,598,000; our profiles consistently follow Table 8.

The 30 major-city profiles use the main urban-agglomeration and city totals in the final Census 2011 A-04(I) Class I table. They include 27 UAs and three standalone municipal corporations, with constituent boundaries and exact source locators. They are historical counts, not current city estimates. We read an archived copy of the original official workbook when its live download was unavailable; the download metadata records that provenance.

The population topic library explains the wider census, survey and administrative data families, including migration, tourism, consumption, housing, language, education, work, disability and other censuses. The local-profile expansion imports all 640 historical districts and 7,933 unique town codes from the national PCA workbook, plus all 334 rural-village records from both Goa district files. Nationwide village and ward coverage remains outside this edition. The complete page inventory shows the content built in this edition.

India in Numbers: evidence register

National surveys, demographic tabulations and administrative series answer different questions. The articles preserve the source period, population group and uncertainty notes. Where the original download was unavailable, the source record identifies the archived copy used.

1. Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom, 2025 — NSS Report No. 593

   National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · Reference: January–March 2025. Published: 2025-05-29.

   Statements 2, 2.1, 3, 13 and 14; Appendix A Tables 2 and 14; RSE Table 5 National estimates were the primary survey objective. State/UT estimates require attention to sample size and relative standard error. Excludes some inaccessible Andaman and Nicobar Islands villages. May 29 is the official results-release date.

2. Telecom Subscription Data at the end of August 2026 — Press Release 125/2026

   Telecom Regulatory Authority of India · Reference: 31 August 2026. Published: 2026-09-28.

   Page 1, highlights table and footnotes; page 2, segment-wise broadband table Administrative returns from telecom service providers. Connections are not deduplicated people. Preserve the report’s distinctions between wireless, wireline, fixed wireless access and machine-to-machine connections.

3. Periodic Labour Force Survey: Monthly Bulletin, August 2026

   National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · Reference: August 2026; Current Weekly Status. Published: 2026-09-15.

   Statements 1, 2 and 3; PDF pages 5, 8 and 11 Selected national indicators use age 15+. Current Weekly Status refers to the seven days before interview. Monthly design introduced in 2025; retain comparability notes.

4. Periodic Labour Force Survey: Quarterly Bulletin, April–June 2026

   National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · Reference: April–June 2026; Current Weekly Status. Published: 2026-08-10.

   Appendix A, Table 2, age 15+ (A-5 / PDF page 26); Table 1RSE, age 15+ (B-2 / PDF page 46) The published comparison contains 22 selected states/UTs, not all 36. Quarterly results are separate from the August monthly figures.

5. Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises 2025: Operational and Economic Characteristics

   National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · Reference: January–December 2025. Published: 2026-05.

   Chapter 3, Statements 2, 16, 17 and 21 Full report dated May 2026; the initial factsheet was released 24 March 2026. Covers unincorporated non-agricultural manufacturing, trade and other services, excluding construction; specified inaccessible Andaman and Nicobar Islands villages excluded. Amounts are at current prices.

6. Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises: Results for 2025

   Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation / Press Information Bureau · Reference: January–December 2025. Published: 2026-03-24.

   Table 1 and endnote The table’s GVA and productivity measures pertain to market establishments. Survey periods differ from the October–September period used in ASUSE 2023–24.

7. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways: Annual Report 2024–25

   Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India · Reference: Selected vehicle-registration stock: 31 March 2022. Published: exact date not established.

   Appendix 11, printed page 133 / PDF page 135; section 7.3.3 describes the provisional figures The report is labelled 2024–25; an exact publication date was not identified in the retrieved report. The 2021 and 2022 vehicle rows carry the P (provisional) marker. The underlying registration year must remain visible.

8. Census 2011 C-01: Population by religious community, India

   Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India · Reference: Census 2011. Published: 2015-08-25.

   Workbook DDW00C-01 MDDS.XLS, sheet C01; India and 35 census-era states/UTs; Total, Rural and Urban rows Archived copy of the original official file

9. Census 2011: Language, India, States and Union Territories, Paper 1 of 2018 (C-16)

   Office of the Registrar General, India · Reference: Census 2011. Published: 2018.

   General Note, printed pp. 3–5; Statement 4, printed p.15 / PDF p.17 Archived copy of the original official file

10. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–21: India, Volume I

    International Institute for Population Sciences and ICF; Ministry of Health & Family Welfare · Reference: NFHS-5, 2019–21. Published: 2022-05-05.

    Tables 2.2, 2.6, 2.11, 2.12 and 10.25; exact table/page attached to each metric or series Archived copy of the original official file

11. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), 2023–24: India and State/UT Fact Sheets

    International Institute for Population Sciences; Ministry of Health & Family Welfare · Reference: NFHS-6 survey round, 2023–24; fieldwork May 2023–December 2024. Published: 2026-05-29.

    India—Key Indicators, printed p.4 / PDF p.26; indicator numbers attached to each metric

12. NSS Report 592: Survey on Household Consumption Expenditure, 2023–24

    National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · Reference: August 2023–July 2024. Published: 2025-01-30.

    Table 3.5, printed pp.30–31 / PDF pp.48–49; interpretation notes 3.2.5.5–3.2.5.7, printed pp.31–32

13. UDISE+ 2025–26 school education release

    Ministry of Education / Press Information Bureau · Reference: Academic years 2022–23 through 2025–26. Published: 2026-07-07.

    Twelve named tables in the release Administrative school records. NEP stages must be retained: foundational, preparatory (classes III–V), middle (VI–VIII), secondary (IX–XII). School facility availability is not household coverage or a learning outcome. A national pupil-teacher ratio does not describe each classroom.

14. Results of Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, 2025

    National Statistics Office, MoSPI / Press Information Bureau · Reference: April–June 2025 survey; spending and coaching during current academic year. Published: 2025-08-26.

    Named key-highlight paragraphs and first-major-source funding table Sample survey of currently enrolled school students; includes anganwadis as pre-primary and presents private coaching separately from school spending. Not directly comparable to NSS 75th-round 2017–18 expenditure. Survey totals are only for rates/ratios, not definitive population counts. State estimates require sample-size/RSE consideration. Values below are national rural/urban estimates, not state estimates.

15. Time Use in India, 2024: official report release

    National Statistics Office, MoSPI / Press Information Bureau · Reference: January–December 2024; diary reference day. Published: 2025-03-28.

    Tables 1, 2 and 3: age group × sex × activity Sample-survey estimates. Participation means doing an activity on the reference day. Per-participant minutes exclude people who did not do the activity; per-person minutes include them. Employment-related participation is not the PLFS labour-force rate. Age groups 15–29 and 15–59 overlap and must not be added. Total per-person minutes can differ from 1440 from rounding. Activity classification and treatment of simultaneous activities belong to the report; these records do not add participant durations to infer a daily budget.

16. Household Social Consumption: Health, January–December 2025

    National Statistics Office, MoSPI / Press Information Bureau · Reference: January–December 2025 survey; 15-day illness/outpatient and 365-day hospitalisation/childbirth recall. Published: 2026-04-20.

    Key findings, B4 insurance, B5 expenditure tables Sample survey and self-reported illness; not clinical prevalence. Hospitalisation rate is instances per 100 persons, excluding childbirth, not necessarily distinct people. Expenses are out-of-pocket medical expenditure at survey-period prices, per case, not hospital prices or insurance premium. Private includes government-empanelled private facilities. Mean and median answer different questions and must stay separate. Survey coverage is persons, whereas NFHS household-health-cover indicators use a different denominator.

17. Migration in India, 2020–2021

    National Statistics Office, MoSPI / PIB · Reference: July 2020–June 2021. Published: 2022-06-14.

    Annexure, Statements 1 and 4

18. Foreign and domestic tourist inflow, Lok Sabha question 3834

    Ministry of Tourism, Government of India · Reference: Calendar years 2021–2025; 2025 provisional. Published: 2026-03-16.

    Annexure, PDF page 3, national Total row and named area rows

Life-stage evidence

Evidence checks are dated on each record, including the passport-link repair on 17 October 2026. Older survey years remain labelled; they are not current-year counts.

1. Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System 2024

   Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India ·

2. NFHS 5 India and PhaseII State Factsheet Compendium

   Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; IIPS and ICF ·

3. SRS Based Abridged Life Tables 2020–24

   Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India ·

4. AISHE Final Report 2023–24

   Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education · Voluntary institution responses; estimated enrolment and actual-response programme/pass-out tables are different universes.

5. PLFS Annual Report 2025, revised 29 May 2026

   National Statistics Office, MoSPI · January–December 2025; redesigned from January 2025. Use this revised retained PDF when earlier press-release figures disagree.

6. UDISE+ 2025–26 official release

   Ministry of Education / PIB · Administrative school records; NEP stages. Retention/GER are not Class 10/12 pass rates or adult attainment.

7. Migration in India 2020–2021 official release

   National Statistics Office, MoSPI / PIB · Migrants have a different last usual place of residence; usual residence involves six months. Pandemic-year resident stock, not annual flow.

8. Household Social Consumption on Education in India, NSS 75 th round, Report 585

   National Statistical Office, MoSPI · Historical sample survey of students aged 3–35. Table 60 makes home-language-aligned medium mutually exclusive from Hindi/English/other media different from home language. English column alone is not all English-medium pupils.

9. Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom, 2025 — NSS Report No. 593

   National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation · National estimates were the primary survey objective. State/UT estimates require attention to sample size and relative standard error. Excludes some inaccessible Andaman and Nicobar Islands villages. May 29 is the official results-release date.

10. National Family Health Survey NFHS-5, India Report 2019–21

    IIPS and ICF / Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ·

11. PAN Allotment Statistics up to 31 March 2026

    Income Tax Department ·

12. Rajya Sabha question 705: Number of passport holders

    Ministry of External Affairs · Current Parliament PDF verified directly: Rajya Sabha question705, answered8February2024. Answer(a) is valid passports; AnnexureI has a different till-2023 state/sex scope. The two totals are not combined.

Primary Census Abstract: definitions and research guidance

Literacy: literate people divided by the corresponding population aged 7 and above. Children aged 0–6 are excluded from the denominator. Rates shown here are calculated from the original counts and rounded to two decimals.

Work: Census work includes economically productive activity under the Census definition, including qualifying unpaid work. Main workers worked for at least six months; marginal workers worked for less than six months during the reference year. Work participation uses all residents as its denominator. It is not the PLFS employment rate for people aged 15 and above.

Households: the PCA household count is retained as published. It is not a count of houses, ordinary families, residential buildings or occupied dwellings. It should not be substituted for another survey’s household universe.

Sex and social categories: published source classifications are retained. Male/female totals reconcile with the selected national and state release; no separate count of people recorded as Others is inferred. SC and ST refer to the published Census classifications.

Zero denominators: a percentage or ratio is unavailable where its denominator is zero. An uninhabited village can still be a valid geographic record.

Using a historical profile in research

Use households as a historical starting point for household services, and the relevant age or worker group for a question about people. A market estimate also needs current eligibility, adoption, spending and a serviceable area. Keep those assumptions separate from the Census count.

For a current-year question, consult the newer official evidence and the state projection. Neither provides an automatic current projection for this geographic unit.

Each profile retains its own geographic caveat, source workbook and exact source rows. Download the field definitions.

Primary Census Abstract: source access and archived workbooks

These access notes describe the copies used for this edition. They do not imply that every government download is currently available.

• Census 2011 Primary Census Abstract, India, states/UTs and districts (PCA SD)

  Exact official workbook read through its Internet Archive capture after the live government download returned HTTP 502. The metadata creation and capture dates are not the census reference year or an asserted publication date. Archived copy of the official workbook

• Census 2011 Basic Population Figures: India, state, district, subdistrict and town, without wards

  Exact official workbook read through its Internet Archive capture after the live government download returned HTTP 502. The NADA title contains a Village wording inconsistency; its ID, download filename and observed TOWN rows identify this as the town-without-ward workbook. Archived copy of the official workbook

• Census 2011 Primary Census Abstract at town, village and ward level: North Goa

  Original Census government workbook retrieved through its archived official download. The current ORGI catalog identifies the same district, filename and PCA table. The source filename includes UI; zero-population village rows are retained. Archived copy of the official workbook

• Census 2011 Primary Census Abstract at town, village and ward level: South Goa

  Original Census government workbook retrieved through its archived official download. The current ORGI catalog identifies the same district, filename and PCA table. The source filename includes UI; zero-population village rows are retained. Archived copy of the official workbook

Our Census 2011 reference dataset

The historical Census 2011 directory, its detailed profiles and the Census 2011 comparison tool use a consistent dataset of final, revised Census 2011 population totals. It contains India plus all 35 census-era states and union territories: 28 states and 7 UTs.

Population, male and female totals were extracted from Annex I of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ answer to Lok Sabha question 653, dated 15 July 2014. Every row was cross-checked against the corresponding population counts in National Health Profile 2019, table 1.1.2. The 35 place totals reconcile to India: 1,21,08,54,977 people.

The checked dataset covers population, the published male and female columns, sex ratio and density. The separate Primary Census Abstract enrichment adds 85 source count fields and 12 calculated indicators, including households, children, age-7+ literacy, social categories and worker groups. The state and district population and sex counts reconcile with this reference. All geography remains tied to 2011; town components are consolidated without double counting municipal cores and outgrowths.

What the measures mean

Historical geography

• All comparisons in this dataset use Census 2011 geographies: 28 states and 7 Union Territories. They are not a list of current states and Union Territories.
• Undivided Andhra Pradesh on Census 2011 boundaries, including the areas later forming Telangana. This is not the population of present-day Andhra Pradesh alone.
• 2011 state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the areas later forming the Union Territory of Ladakh. This is not the population of the present-day Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory alone.
• Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are separate 2011 entities and must not also be counted as a merged Union Territory in the same total.
• Do not add separate Telangana or Ladakh rows to this dataset without first replacing and reconciling the corresponding undivided parent areas.

Read the guide to boundary changes before comparing these records with present-day states, districts or cities.

Final totals and revisions

Early 2011 releases were provisional, and subsequent releases included corrections. The cited source notes that Mao Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district were finalised after the original Primary Census Abstract release. Our dataset consistently uses the revised Manipur total of 2,855,794 and the corresponding India total of 1,210,854,977.

The same source explains its special area convention for India and the former state of Jammu and Kashmir when calculating density. We retain its published density figures. Dividing an old population total by a different geographic area can produce an incompatible result.

When official tables disagree

National Health Profile 2019 prints a sex ratio of 949 for Jharkhand and 947 for Lakshadweep. The Government of Puducherry’s Census 2011 table publishes 948 and 946 respectively, agreeing with the rounded ratios implied by the identical population counts. Our reference uses 948 for Jharkhand and 946 for Lakshadweep and records those source selections explicitly.

The older Puducherry table is used for these two ratios, not as the source of the revised national or Manipur population totals.

The historical articles are a separate record

The original PopulationIndia articles were manually written in 2012–2013. We preserve that writing in the archive with its original publication dates. Some articles use provisional data; some contain errors identified in review. Every archive page carries a historical notice, and affected pages have specific review notes.

Preserving an article does not certify every number in it. Use the checked profiles for the core Census 2011 measures, and return to the official source for any further analysis.

Official source register

1. Census 2011: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 653, Annex I - Total population, Census 2011
   Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India · Annex I, PDF page 3 of 4 (zero-based page index 2)
2. National Health Profile 2019, Table 1.1.2 - State/UT wise Distribution of Population, Sex Ratio, Density and Decadal Growth rate of Population: 2011
   Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India · Printed pages 10-11; PDF pages 34-35 (zero-based indices 33-34)
3. State-wise Population - Statewise Population 2011 Census
   Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Puducherry · Jharkhand state row (code 20); Lakshadweep UT row (code 31); separate state and Union Territory tables
4. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3925, Annex - Total/SC/ST Population of India and States/UTs: Census 2011
   Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India · Annex, PDF page 2; explicitly gives national code 00 and state/UT codes 01-35
5. ORGI Primary Census Abstract: Basic Population Figures of India and States, 2011
   Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India

Sources checked 11 October 2026. The ORGI catalog is included as a maintenance reference; the numeric extract was read from the official tables described above.

Cite the original data

When using a figure, give the census year, the geographic unit and the original table. You may also link to the PopulationIndia page where you found the explanation. For example:

Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Census 2011 final population totals, reproduced in Ministry of Home Affairs, Lok Sabha Question 653, Annex I, 15 July 2014. Geography: Census 2011 boundaries.