Delhi was the largest city in terms of number of inhabitants in India in 2023.The capital city was estimated to house nearly 33 million people, with Mumbai ranking second that year. India's population estimate was 1.4 billion, ahead of China that same year.

In 2021, Delhi had the highest metro coverage among major metropolitan cities in India with 12 operational kilometers per one million people. At the same time, Mumbai had the lowest coverage with only 0.5 operational kilometers per one million people. Poor public transportation in many Indian cities was responsible for traffic congestion and air pollution.

As of 2024, Mumbai had a gross domestic product of 368 billion U.S. dollars, the highest among other major cities in India. It was followed by Delhi with a GDP of around 167 billion U.S. dollars. India’s megacities also boast the highest GDP among other cities in the country. What drives the GDP of India’s megacities? Mumbai is the financial capital of the country, and its GDP growth is primarily fueled by the financial services sector, port-based trade, and the Hindi film industry or Bollywood. Delhi in addition to being the political hub hosts a significant services sector. The satellite cities of Noida and Gurugram amplify the city's economic status. The southern cities of Bengaluru and Chennai have emerged as IT and manufacturing hubs respectively. Hyderabad is a significant player in the pharma and IT industries. Lastly, the western city of Ahmedabad, in addition to its strategic location and ports, is powered by the textile, chemicals, and machinery sectors. Does GDP equal to quality of life? Cities propelling economic growth and generating a major share of GDP is a global phenomenon, as in the case of Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, and others. However, the GDP, which measures the market value of all final goods and services produced in a region, does not always translate to a rise in quality of life. Five of India’s megacities featured in the Global Livability Index, with low ranks among global peers. The Index was based on indicators such as healthcare, political stability, environment and culture, infrastructure, and others.

In 2022, the Indian capital city of Delhi had the highest length of roads amongst metropolitan cities, at over 33 thousand kilometers. It was followed distantly by Kolkata with just over four thousand kilometers. The total number of vehicles registered in Delhi at the end of that year was over eight million.

The demand for commercial real estate space in top seven cities in India stood at 38 million square feet as of 2023. It was the same as previous year.

The population in New Delhi was approximately 28.5 million, the most among the leading Indian cities in 2019. Mumbai and Kolkata rounded up the three most populated cities across the country that year.

The smart city market is projected to reach $2.37 billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 18.30% during the forecast period. The market growth is primarily driven by the increasing adoption of smart technologies, rising urbanization, and government initiatives to improve urban infrastructure. Smart cities aim to optimize resource management, enhance public safety, and improve the overall quality of life for citizens. Governments and municipalities are investing heavily in smart infrastructure, including smart grids, intelligent transportation systems, and smart buildings. Key trends shaping the smart city market include the growing adoption of IoT devices, cloud computing, and big data analytics. These technologies enable the collection, analysis, and utilization of vast amounts of data generated by smart city infrastructure. This data can be used to optimize traffic flow, reduce energy consumption, and improve public safety. Furthermore, the proliferation of smartphones and mobile applications has led to the development of citizen-centric smart city services, such as real-time traffic updates, parking information, and waste management alerts. The market is also witnessing a shift towards integrated smart solutions that combine multiple technologies to address specific urban challenges. Recent developments include: March 2024: Connected Urban is an innovative design to improve our streets’ connectivity, given the need for densification in 4G networks following the 5G rollout. It enables both macro cells and small cells to be within one compact footprint, thereby accommodating multi-faceted services such as antennas, CCTV systems, or even public address systems, including smart lighting, among others. This range is composed of sleek modular scalable smart poles that do more than just meet modern cities’ connectivity requirements since they are designed to support multiple services at once., February 2024: NEC Corp India announced the launch of new smart city tech products for “organizations and authorities to manage operations efficiently”. The solutions include NEC Mi-Command (integrated command and control center), NEC Mi-City (citizen engagement portal), NEC Mi-Eye (intelligent video analytics), and NEC Mi-WareSync (warehouse management system). These solutions will ensure seamless operations among organizations and authorities by providing transparency and visibility for efficient management and decision-making, as well as offering enhanced experiences for citizens, businesses, communities, etc., according to a statement released by NEC Corp India., February 2024: BT launched its new NB-IoT network, which is set to cover 97%* of the UK population, thus paving the way for more smart cities and industries. The network is supported by an award-winning EE mobile network. With low-power wide-area technology, NB-IoT BT now provides an opportunity for utility construction in the public sector, among other fields where devices can be securely connected to automate processes still done manually or requiring direct involvement at the present moment; this will not only realize long battery life, but it can also save money because efficiency may increase significantly, especially when leaks are detected automatically from water infrastructure., March 2023: AT&T has chosen Fortress Solutions as a partner to provide facilities management services for fiber optics, edge data centers, and 5G infrastructure as part of its ambition to build "the US' first 5G Smart City Market at scale" in Washington, DC., October 2022: Honeywell and Accelerator for America unveiled the Honeywell Smart City Market Accelerator Program, which assists communities in strategically planning their futures and building capacity to support transformational initiatives. Honeywell is working with five cities including Kansas City, Louisville, San Diego, Cleveland, and Waterloo, among others in the United States to give in-kind assistance in order to speed the development of their Smart City Market strategy planning., July 2021: Microsoft had planned to buy AT&T's network cloud technologies and intellectual property. In exchange, AT&T will relocate its 5G mobile network to Azure. The companies will begin with AT&T's 5G core and work their way up. The collaboration expands on an existing USD 2 billion agreement in which AT&T relocated its back-end office to Microsoft Azure.. Notable trends are: Development of IoT Technologies & Devices to Foster Growth of Smart City Market Concepts.

Abstract

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) was carried out as the principal activity of a collaborative project to strengthen the research capabilities of the Population Reasearch Centres (PRCs) in India, initiated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, and coordinated by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Bombay. Interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of 89,777 ever-married women in the age group 13-49, from 24 states and the National Capital Territoty of Delhi. The main objective of the survey was to collect reliable and up-to-date information on fertility, family planning, mortality, and maternal and child health. Data collection was carried out in three phases from April 1992 to September 1993. THe NFHS is one of the most complete surveys of its kind ever conducted in India.

The households covered in the survey included 500,492 residents. The young age structure of the population highlights the momentum of the future population growth of the country; 38 percent of household residents are under age 15, with their reproductive years still in the future. Persons age 60 or older constitute 8 percent of the population. The population sex ratio of the de jure residents is 944 females per 1,000 males, which is slightly higher than sex ratio of 927 observed in the 1991 Census.

The primary objective of the NFHS is to provide national-level and state-level data on fertility, nuptiality, family size preferences, knowledge and practice of family planning, the potentiel demand for contraception, the level of unwanted fertility, utilization of antenatal services, breastfeeding and food supplemation practises, child nutrition and health, immunizations, and infant and child mortality. The NFHS is also designed to explore the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of fertility, family planning, and maternal and child health. This information is intended to assist policymakers, adminitrators and researchers in assessing and evaluating population and family welfare programmes and strategies. The NFHS used uniform questionnaires and uniform methods of sampling, data collection and analysis with the primary objective of providing a source of demographic and health data for interstate comparisons. The data collected in the NFHS are also comparable with those of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in many other countries.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Household
• Data collected for women 13-49, indicators calculated for women 15-49

Universe

The population covered by the 1992-93 DHS is defined as the universe of all women age 13-49 who were either permanent residents of the households in the NDHS sample or visitors present in the households on the night before the survey were eligible to be interviewed.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

SAMPLE DESIGN

The sample design for the NFHS was discussed during a Sample Design Workshop held in Madurai in Octber, 1991. The workshop was attended by representative from the PRCs; the COs; the Office of the Registrar General, India; IIPS and the East-West Center/Macro International. A uniform sample design was adopted in all the NFHS states. The Sample design adopted in each state is a systematic, stratified sample of households, with two stages in rural areas and three stages in urban areas.

SAMPLE SIZE AND ALLOCATION

The sample size for each state was specified in terms of a target number of completed interviews with eligible women. The target sample size was set considering the size of the state, the time and ressources available for the survey and the need for separate estimates for urban and rural areas of the stat. The initial target sample size was 3,000 completed interviews with eligible women for states having a population of 25 million or less in 1991; 4,000 completed interviews for large states with more than 25 million population; 8,000 for Uttar Pradesh, the largest state; and 1,000 each for the six small northeastern states. In States with a substantial number of backward districts, the initial target samples were increased so as to allow separate estimates to be made for groups of backward districts.

The urban and rural samples within states were drawn separetly and , to the extent possible, sample allocation was proportional to the size of the urban-rural populations (to facilitate the selection of a self-weighting sample for each state). In states where the urban population was not sufficiently large to provide a sample of at least 1,000 completed interviews with eligible women, the urban areas were appropriately oversampled (except in the six small northeastern states).

THE RURAL SAMPLE: THE FRAME, STRATIFICATION AND SELECTION

A two-stage stratified sampling was adopted for the rural areas: selection of villages followed by selection of households. Because the 1991 Census data were not available at the time of sample selection in most states, the 1981 Census list of villages served as the sampling frame in all the states with the exception of Assam, Delhi and Punjab. In these three states the 1991 Census data were used as the sampling frame.

Villages were stratified prior to selection on the basis of a number of variables. The firts level of stratification in all the states was geographic, with districts subdivided into regions according to their geophysical characteristics. Within each of these regions, villages were further stratified using some of the following variables : village size, distance from the nearest town, proportion of nonagricultural workers, proportion of the population belonging to scheduled castes/scheduled tribes, and female literacy. However, not all variables were used in every state. Each state was examined individually and two or three variables were selected for stratification, with the aim of creating not more than 12 strata for small states and not more than 15 strata for large states. Females literacy was often used for implicit stratification (i.e., the villages were ordered prior to selection according to the proportion of females who were literate). Primary sampling Units (PSUs) were selected systematically, with probaility proportional to size (PPS). In some cases, adjacent villages with small population sizes were combined into a single PSU for the purpose of sample selection. On average, 30 households were selected for interviewing in each selected PSU.

In every state, all the households in the selected PSUs were listed about two weeks prior to the survey. This listing provided the necessary frame for selecting households at the second sampling stage. The household listing operation consisted of preparing up-to-date notional and layout sketch maps of each selected PSU, assigning numbers to structures, recording addresses (or locations) of these structures, identifying the residential structures, and listing the names of the heads of all the households in the residentiak structures in the selected PSU. Each household listing team consisted of a lister and a mapper. The listing operation was supervised by the senior field staff of the concerned CO and the PRC in each state. Special efforts were made not to miss any household in the selected PSU during the listing operation. In PSUs with fewer than 500 households, a complete household listing was done. In PSUs with 500 or more households, segmentation of the PSU was done on the basis of existing wards in the PSU, and two segments were selected using either systematic sampling or PPS sampling. The household listing in such PSUs was carried out in the selected segments. The households to be interviewed were selected from provided with the original household listing, layout sketch map and the household sample selected for each PSU. All the selected households were approached during the data collection, and no substitution of a household was allowed under any circumstances.

THE RURAL URBAN SAMPLE: THE FRAME, STRATIFICATION AND SELECTION

A three-stage sample design was adopted for the urban areas in each state: selection of cities/towns, followed by urban blocks, and finally households. Cities and towns were selected using the 1991 population figures while urban blocks were selected using the 1991 list of census enumeration blocks in all the states with the exception of the firts phase states. For the first phase states, the list of urban blocks provided by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSSO) served as the sampling frame.

All cities and towns were subdivided into three strata: (1) self-selecting cities (i.e., cities with a population large enough to be selected with certainty), (2) towns that are district headquaters, and (3) other towns. Within each stratum, the cities/towns were arranged according to the same kind of geographic stratification used in the rural areas. In self-selecting cities, the sample was selected according to a two-stage sample design: selection of the required number of urban blocks, followed by selection of households in each of selected blocks. For district headquarters and other towns, a three stage sample design was used: selection of towns with PPS, followed by selection of two census blocks per selected town, followed by selection of households from each selected block. As in rural areas, a household listing was carried out in the selected blocks, and an average of 20 households per block was selected systematically.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face

Research instrument

Three types of questionnaires were used in the NFHS: the Household Questionnaire, the Women's Questionnaire, and the Village Questionnaire. The overall content

This statistic illustrates the consumption expenditure per capita across the largest cities in India in 2015. The nation capital region, Delhi, had a per capita consumer expenditure of approximately 138,000 Indian rupees. Bangalore had the highest per capita consumption expenditure during the measured time period.

The global per capita expenditure on apparel in 2015 and 2025, broken down by region, can be found here.

In 2023, approximately a third of the total population in India lived in cities. The trend shows an increase of urbanization by more than 4 percent in the last decade, meaning people have moved away from rural areas to find work and make a living in the cities. Leaving the fieldOver the last decade, urbanization in India has increased by almost 4 percent, as more and more people leave the agricultural sector to find work in services. Agriculture plays a significant role in the Indian economy and it employs almost half of India’s workforce today, however, its contribution to India’s GDP has been decreasing while the services sector gained in importance. No rural exodus in sightWhile urbanization is increasing as more jobs in telecommunications and IT are created and the private sector gains in importance, India is not facing a shortage of agricultural workers or a mass exodus to the cities yet. India is a very densely populated country with vast areas of arable land – over 155 million hectares of land was cultivated land in India as of 2015, for example, and textiles, especially cotton, are still one of the major exports. So while a shift of the workforce focus is obviously taking place, India is not struggling to fulfill trade demands yet.

This statistic displays the total consumption expenditure across the largest cities in India in 2015. Bengaluru had the lowest consumer expenditure in this list during that time period with approximately 3,500 billion Indian rupees.

The household final consumption expenditure in 2014, by country in the Asia Pacific region can be found here.

As of September 2024, Mumbai had the highest cost of living among other cities in the country, with an index value of 26.5. Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi and part of the National Capital Region (NCR) followed it with an index value of 25.1.  What is cost of living? The cost of living varies depending on geographical regions and factors that affect the cost of living in an area include housing, food, utilities, clothing, childcare, and fuel among others. The cost of living is calculated based on different measures such as the consumer price index (CPI), living cost indexes, and wage price index. CPI refers to the change in the value of consumer goods and services. The wage price index, on the other hand, measures the change in labor services prices due to market pressures. Lastly, the living cost indexes calculate the impact of changing costs on different households. The relationship between wages and costs determines affordability and shifts in the cost of living. Mumbai tops the list Mumbai usually tops the list of most expensive cities in India. As the financial and entertainment hub of the country, Mumbai offers wide opportunities and attracts talent from all over the country. It is the second-largest city in India and has one of the most expensive real estates in the world.

This statistic represents the share of radio listeners in the metropolitan cities in India in 2015, with a breakdown by gender of listeners. The city of Delhi had 44 percent male listeners and 56 percent female listeners that year.

As per the Census data dated 2011, the slum dwellers population in Mumbai was the highest among all other major metropolitan cities of India, at around five million. Hyderabad and Delhi followed it. A total of about 65 million people were estimated to be living in slums across the country.

IESH: RBI: Inflation Expectations: Delhi: Current: Standard Deviation在2018-06达4.100 %，相较于2018-05的3.900 %有所增长。IESH: RBI: Inflation Expectations: Delhi: Current: Standard Deviation数据按月度更新，2008-09至2018-06期间平均值为3.400 %，共44份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于2014-03，达5.000 %，而历史最低值则出现于2008-09，为1.130 %。CEIC提供的IESH: RBI: Inflation Expectations: Delhi: Current: Standard Deviation数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于Reserve Bank of India，数据归类于India Premium Database的Business and Economic Survey – Table IN.SC005: Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH): Reserve Bank of India: Inflation Expectations: by Major Cities。

In 2022, there were 1952 crime cases reported per 100,000 inhabitants in the Indian city of Delhi. This was followed by the city of Kochi, with over 1.3 thousand criminal cases that year.

According to a survey conducted in India between 2020 and 2021, 27 percent of the urban online shoppers were from metro regions of the south Asian country in 2021. However, lower-tier cities such as tier two, three, and four were estimated to form the major share of urban online shoppers by 2030.

As per the Global Liveability Index of 2024, five Indian cities figured on the list comprising 173 across the world. Indian megacities Delhi and Mumbai tied for 141st place with a score of 60.2 out of 100. They were followed by Chennai (59.9), Ahmedabad (58.9), and Bengaluru (58.7). What are indicators for livability The list was topped by Vienna for yet another year. The index measures cities on five broad indicators such as stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. As per the Economic Intelligence Unit’s suggestions, if a city’s livability score is between 50 to 60 then “livability is substantially constrained”. Less than 50 means most aspects of living are severely restricted. Least Liveable cities on the index The least liveable cities were in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa regions. Damascus and Tripoli ranked the lowest. Tel Aviv also witnessed significant drop due to war with Hamas.

India's capital, Delhi, had the highest number of registered cars at the end of fiscal year 2020, amounting to approximately 3.3 million. It was followed by Bengaluru, with 1.98 million cars. Car in this category represents non-transport vehicles which exclude jeeps, omni buses, tractors, trailers, and etc.

Byrnihat was the most polluted city in India in 2024, with an average PM2.5 concentration of nearly 130 micrograms per cubic meter of air (μg/m³). This high level of pollution made the small industrial town on the Assam Meghalaya border the most polluted cities worldwide in 2024. Poor air quality across India India was the fifth-most polluted country in the world in 2024, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 50.6 μg/m³. That same year, the country's capital New Delhi was also the most polluted capital city in the world. Vehicle exhaust and wood burning are some of the main sources of particulate air pollution in India, together with soil, road and construction dust . Impacts of air pollution in India The severe air pollution in India can have detrimental health impacts on the country's population. Fine particle pollutants penetrate deeply in the lungs, causing respiratory problems and can even result in premature death. More than two million deaths are attibuted to air pollution in India every year.