Data For India

Access to safe, usable toilet facilities is a critical component of public health and safety. India has long struggled with very low levels of sanitation, significantly worse than many comparable countries. In 2000, only 14% of India’s population had access to at least a basic sanitation facility, placing it behind much poorer countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Somalia. When people do not have access to a safe and usable toilet, they are forced to defecate in the open. However, over the next two decades, India made consistent progress in improving access to sanitation. By 2022, India had surpassed countries that were at a similar level in 2000, or were ahead at the time. Basic sanitation facilities are defined as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households. These include flush/pour-flush to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines; ventilated improved pit latrines, composting toilets or pit latrines with slabs. This categorisation is based on WHO and UNICEF's definition. What kind of toilet facilities do Indian households have access to? Read @nileena_suresh's piece to find out: dataforindia.com/sanitation/?ut… #Toilets #Sanitation #WASH #India #DataForIndia

Higher education is seen as a key to getting young Indians into skilled, high-paying jobs and accelerating economic growth. Just under 40 million young people (aged 18-23) were enrolled in higher education programmes in India as of 2022. This included both undergraduate (or equivalent) and postgraduate (or equivalent) levels of study. However, at 32%, enrolment in tertiary or higher education in India is still below the world average. In the early 1990s, India’s higher education enrolment rates were similar to China’s, for instance. But in the two decades since, China has made big strides: more than seven in ten young Chinese adults are now in higher education, compared to three in ten young Indian adults. How does higher education enrolment look across states, and what disciplines do students choose to study in India? Read @akwaghmare’s piece to find out: dataforindia.com/higher-educati… #College #Undergraduate #Education #HigherEducation #India #DataForIndia

The rate of murder, or ‘intentional homicide’, is widely used as an indicator of public safety in a city or country. India recorded nearly 37,500 incidents of intentional homicides in 2023. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) considers statistics put out by India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under three offences to calculate intentional homicides in India. First, culpable homicide, that is murder (punishable under Sec. 103 under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita or previously, Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code). Four in five intentional homicides in India are murders. Second, dowry deaths (defined and punishable under Section 80 of BNS or previously, Section 304B of IPC), accounting for nearly one in six intentional homicides. The remaining are culpable homicides not amounting to murder (punishable under Sec. 105 under BNS or previously, Section 304 of IPC), an offence that is considered less serious than murder. One example of this would be a sudden fight between two people where one of them kills the other only in the heat of the moment, without any premeditation to cause the death. How has the incidence of intentional homicide changed over time in India? Read Ameya Bokil’s piece to find out: dataforindia.com/homicide/?utm_… #Murder #Homicide #Law #India #DataForIndia

How has the share of people from other age-groups in the population evolved for states in India over time? Read @Rukmini’s piece to find out: dataforindia.com/age-distributi…

In the decade ahead, they will see their working-age populations begin to shrink, even as the north-central states will continue to see their working-age populations grow.

🧵 India is a relatively young country. Half of India's population is under the age of 30, making it a far younger country than its European, North American and East Asian counterparts. #Population #Census #Demographics #India #DataForIndia

The most widely used indicator to understand how risky pregnancy and childbirth are in a region is the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). MMR is the number of maternal deaths, during pregnancy or within 42 days after, for every 100,000 live births. Maternal mortality in India stood at 398 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 1998, and by 2023, this number had decreased to 88 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Improving access to healthcare has been a key factor in this decline. A study found that nearly half of maternal deaths occurred at home, with 14% happening in transit between home and a health facility. The number of institutional births in India has risen significantly over the last twenty years, lowering the risk of maternal mortality. In 1993, only a quarter of deliveries took place in public or private hospitals; by 2021, this had increased to 89%. Even with this progress, over a quarter of mothers in India’s poorest rural households continue to give birth at home. Five of 36 states - Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Nagaland - still report over one in five deliveries at home. Alongside institutional births, access to adequate healthcare during pregnancy is crucial for reducing risks before delivery. How does this access look across India? Read @nileena_suresh’s piece to find out: dataforindia.com/maternal-morta… #Hospital #Birth #Death #Health #India #DataForIndia

Vocational training refers to the set of practical skills people need to do specific kinds of work. These are the skills that can make someone more employable. Only one in three Indians receive any form of vocational training for their jobs. About 4% of working-age Indians, or 36 million people aged 15-59, report having received formal vocational training. Formal vocational training refers to structured, usually paid courses with a defined curriculum that lead to certification. Informal training, which includes hereditary skills passed down within families, self-learning, learning on the job, and short-term training that is not formally recognised, is much more widespread. About 30% of people aged 15-59 report having received informal training. Vocational training patterns are different among men and women. Overall, women are about as likely as men to receive formal training, but are less likely to receive informal training, which often happens in workplaces or through apprenticeships. Formal training is slightly more common in cities than in rural areas, where informal skilling is higher. What are the different types of vocational skills that Indians are acquiring? Read @nileena_suresh’s analysis to learn more: dataforindia.com/vocational-tra… #Training #Jobs #Work #India #DataForIndia

Literacy - the ability to read and write a sentence in any language with proper comprehension - is the most fundamental measure of educational outcomes. India has made remarkable progress in improving literacy rates, rising from fewer than two in ten literate in the early 1950s, to eight in ten as of 2023. India’s literacy data comes from the Census (until 2011) and subsequent nationally representative sample surveys by the National Statistics Office (NSO). Literacy in India lags behind the world average, but the data shows that that is largely a historical legacy. Youth literacy (ages 15-24) is rising fast and is now higher than the world average. Half of India's illiterate population is above 50 years of age. Meanwhile, illiteracy has been virtually eliminated among children and teenagers suggesting that India is on the path to near-universal literacy. Despite this progress in literacy, gaps remain. Not all groups are at equal levels of literacy - urban literacy is higher than rural, and literacy is higher for men than women in India. Illiteracy is also higher among people who belong to a marginalised group. But these gaps have narrowed over time as well. What are the literacy rates across various states in India? Read @akwaghmare's piece to find out: dataforindia.com/literacy-in-in… #Literacy #Education #LivingConditions #India #DataForIndia

As a country gets richer and simultaneously ages, deaths from communicable diseases and conditions related to childbirth become more preventable and less common. Consequently, the relative share of deaths from non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer begins to rise. India is in the midst of this epidemiological transition. Non-communicable diseases account for over half of all deaths in India as of 2022, the latest year for which this data is available. Among non-communicable diseases, heart disease is the largest contributor to Indian mortality and is now responsible for one in three deaths. From middle age onwards as the relative risk from infectious diseases declines, age and factors including obesity and hypertension put people at greater risk. Cancer kills over 6% of Indians every year, with a higher contribution to mortality among those in their late 40s and early 50s in particular. 15% of deaths of women aged 30-54 are from cancer. What are the top causes of death from communicable diseases in India? Read @Rukmini's piece to find out: dataforindia.com/indias-disease… #Diseases #Health #PublicHealth #India #DataForIndia

While most Indian households now own a mobile phone, computer ownership in India has grown slowly. Over the last two decades, the share of households that own a computer has increased from just over 1% to just over 9%. In most developed countries, by contrast, computer ownership exceeds 75%. Among the 30 million households in India that own a computer, 90% have a laptop, while 20% own a desktop. A little under 10% of computer-owning households report having both a laptop and a desktop. India has also made limited progress in the ability to use computers over the last decade. A little over one in five adults, or 200 million people, were able to operate a computer as of 2025. This share is roughly twice the share of households that own a computer, suggesting that many people may have learned to use a computer, or use one in college or at work, without owning one themselves. While the proportion of rural adults who can use a computer has increased, it still stands at just about one in six. Among urban adults, the figure is much higher with over one in three adults, but it has grown only marginally over the last decade. How does the ability to use computers vary by age group and gender in India? Read @akwaghmare’s piece to find out: dataforindia.com/computers/?utm… #Computer #Technology #Laptop #India #DataForIndia

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Organised manufacturing accounts for the majority of economic value added through manufacturing and employed 18.5 million people in over 200,000 factories in 2024. The manufacture of food products employs the most Indian factory workers, accounting for over two million jobs. The manufacture of textiles and wearing apparel are other key sources of factory jobs, collectively employing over three million people. The manufacture of food products is widely dispersed throughout the country, with Maharashtra being the leading employer. Tamil Nadu followed by Gujarat are India's textile manufacturing hubs. Tamil Nadu is India's apparel manufacturing hub, with more than one in three apparel factory workers in the state alone. The manufacture of basic metals is largely confined to the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, as well as Maharashtra and Gujarat. How much economic value does organised manufacturing create across different regions in India? Read Ishan Deodhar and @akwaghmare's piece to find out: dataforindia.com/manufacturing-… #Manufacturing #Industry #Economy #India #DataForIndia

The rise of mobile phones powered access to the internet in India. In the ten years from 2014 to 2024, India added 30 million wired internet connections. In the same time, India added nearly 900 million mobile broadband connections. Household surveys point to a similar expansion of household-level internet access; only 2% of homes in India had internet access in 2009, but once mobile broadband entered the space, the pace of access accelerated. By 2023, this had increased to 76% of households. Alongside household access, the usage of the internet has grown too. As of 2023, nearly six in ten Indians had used the internet at least once in the last three months, according to a nationally representative survey. Internet usage is higher among more urban, better educated and richer Indians, and more among men than women. Internet usage is also rising steadily - the share of Indian teenagers using the internet is double that of Indians above the age of 60 using it. How does internet access in India look across different income and education levels? Read @akwaghmare’s analysis to find out: dataforindia.com/comm-tech/?utm… #Mobile #Phone #Internet #India #DataForIndia

Nearly 95% of Indian households have access to basic drinking water, a rate of progress that has surpassed the world's average. Tap or piped water is the single largest source of drinking water for urban Indians. The most recent data on access to drinking water in India comes from the 79th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), conducted in 2022-23. Nearly seven in ten households across urban India use tap water as their principal source of drinking water. The principal source refers to the one from which most of the drinking water was obtained by the household during the last 365 days. However, there are some key peculiarities at the state level. Bottled water (which includes home-delivered cans of water) has become an important source of drinking water in the southern states. In urban Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, over a quarter of households get their drinking water primarily from bottled water. In Kerala, on the other hand, household wells are the most important source of drinking water. Driven by the southern states, bottled water has become a key source of drinking water in urban India, now serving 15% of households nationally. How does bottled water use compare in rural India? Read @Rukmini's analysis to find out: dataforindia.com/access-to-drin… #Water #WASH #WashData #India #DataForIndia