@dataforin

Insights, charts and data to create shared knowledge and expand our understanding of India.

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India has the world’s second-largest labour market, with approximately 625 million workers. One way to understand this labour market is to examine how workers are distributed across three major sectors: agriculture, industry and services. Agriculture employs nearly half of India’s workforce, while industry and services each employ roughly a quarter. Where Indians work has changed significantly over the past 50 years. Agriculture’s share of employment has fallen from three-quarters in the 1970s to less than half in 2024. This change is in line with the economic transformation that is expected when a developing country grows and industrialises. Those who moved out of agriculture entered industry and the services sector. Industry includes construction and manufacturing, in addition to public utilities and mining. Within industry, construction now employs 75 million people, more than the 65 million workers who are in manufacturing. Services mainly include trade, transport, communications, real estate, financial services, professional services, and public administration. In the services sector, trade and hotels have gained the most and now employ 70 million people. #Work #Employment #Job #India #DataForIndia
Title: Agriculture employs the most rural Indians, while most urban Indians work in services Sub-title: Share of economic sectors in India’s employment (2024) Explanation: In 2024, agriculture employed 60% of rural workers, industry 21% and services 19%. In urban areas, services employed 61% of workers and industry 32%, with a small share working in agriculture. Industry includes manufacturing, construction, utilities and mining. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Agriculture employs the most rural Indians, while most urban Indians work in services Sub-title: Share of economic sectors in India’s employment (2024) Explanation: In 2024, agriculture employed 60% of rural workers, industry 21% and services 19%. In urban areas, services employed 61% of workers and industry 32%, with a small share working in agriculture. Industry includes manufacturing, construction, utilities and mining. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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What types of jobs are found in these sectors across India? Read @akwaghmare's piece to find out. dataforindia.com/work-employ…

Employment in India

Who is in India’s labour force, who is out of it, what work people in the labour force do, and who is unemployed.

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There has been a significant expansion in access to electricity for Indian households over the last three decades. Access is now widespread across the country, with most states having provided electricity to over 95% of households. However, having an electricity connection doesn't guarantee reliable service. Households can still face challenges with frequent power cuts, voltage fluctuations and inconsistent supply. To understand how many Indian households are using electricity regularly, we look at data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys, which ask households about their primary energy source for lighting. In 1983, more than eight in ten rural households primarily used kerosene to light their homes. That share was down to virtually zero by 2024. Electricity lights most Indian homes now. The households who do not yet use electricity are concentrated in India’s poorest communities. Over one in six of the poorest rural households did not have access to electricity as of 2021. #Electricity #Power #Lighting #India #DataForIndia
Title: Over 99% of households in rural India use electricity as their main source of lighting Sub-title: Primary source of energy for household lighting, over time Explanation: Between 1983 and 2024, the share of rural Indian households using electricity as their main source of lighting rose from about 15% to over 99%. Over the same period, the share using kerosene fell from about 84% to virtually zero. Electricity overtook kerosene in the early 2000s. Source: Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Over 99% of households in rural India use electricity as their main source of lighting Sub-title: Primary source of energy for household lighting, over time Explanation: Between 1983 and 2024, the share of rural Indian households using electricity as their main source of lighting rose from about 15% to over 99%. Over the same period, the share using kerosene fell from about 84% to virtually zero. Electricity overtook kerosene in the early 2000s. Source: Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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How do different states and income groups compare in terms of access to electricity? Read @nileena_suresh's detailed analysis to find out. dataforindia.com/access-to-e…

Access to electricity

Access to electricity in India is now nearly universal - in 2000, only 60% of the population had access to electricity. By 2021, this figure had risen to 99.6%.

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New Data Byte: 2025 saw the most intense pre-monsoon rainfall in India, by Juhi Chatterjee While the majority of India's rain falls during its south-west monsoon, the pre-monsoon season (March-May) also accounts for a share of the precipitation. The 2025 pre-monsoon season in India stands out as one of the most extreme on record. Three key rainfall indicators-total precipitation, maximum one-day rainfall, and maximum five-day rainfall-capture the severity of short-duration rainfall events. Total precipitation is the cumulative rainfall received during the pre-monsoon season. Maximum one-day rainfall represents the highest rainfall recorded in a single day during the season. Maximum five-day rainfall measures the highest rainfall accumulated over any consecutive five-day period. In 2025, the maximum one-day and maximum five-day rainfall both recorded their highest values since 1951. Together with the near-record total seasonal precipitation, these indicators suggest that pre-monsoon rainfall is becoming both heavier and more concentrated during heavy spells. All three indicators show an upward trajectory over the past seven decades, with the sharpest increases occurring after 2015. Historically, the pre-monsoon was relatively drier, averaging just 10-15 rainy days and 20-50 mm of cumulative rain at the national level. Recently, however, both rainfall frequency and totals have increased, with 2025 recording seasonal precipitation of 126 mm - the second-highest value since 1951. The increasing concentration of rainfall into one-day and multi-day events has important implications for disaster risk, agriculture and urban infrastructure. #Monsoon #Rain #Climate #India #DataForIndia
Title: Changes in pre-monsoon rainfall metrics Sub-title: 2025 saw the most intense pre-monsoon rainfall in India Explanation: Annual pre-monsoon rainfall in India from 1951 to 2025, measured in millimetres. Total seasonal precipitation, maximum five-day rainfall, and maximum one-day rainfall all trend upward, with sharper increases after 2015. In 2025, total precipitation reached 126 mm, the second-highest level since 1951; maximum one-day and five-day rainfall both reached their highest levels in the series. This points to heavier rainfall increasingly concentrated in intense spells. Source: India Meteorological Department Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Changes in pre-monsoon rainfall metrics Sub-title: 2025 saw the most intense pre-monsoon rainfall in India Explanation: Annual pre-monsoon rainfall in India from 1951 to 2025, measured in millimetres. Total seasonal precipitation, maximum five-day rainfall, and maximum one-day rainfall all trend upward, with sharper increases after 2015. In 2025, total precipitation reached 126 mm, the second-highest level since 1951; maximum one-day and five-day rainfall both reached their highest levels in the series. This points to heavier rainfall increasingly concentrated in intense spells. Source: India Meteorological Department Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data Bytes brings you one chart about India every week, and the story behind the data. Subscribe to receive the next Data Byte, right in your inbox. dataforindia.com/data-bytes/…

Data Bytes

Our weekly newsletter bringing you one chart about India, and the story behind the data.

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The full extent of people's interactions with the law in India can be difficult to quantify. We analysed cases disposed of across India’s subordinate courts between 2010 and 2020. These cases, heard before magistrates, civil judges, and district and sessions judges, are the first point of contact between Indians and the legal system. In all, this dataset contains 43 million records of legislation invoked in cases. While criminal cases contribute to the majority of the dataset, the data also provides valuable insights into civil litigation, which is otherwise rarely captured in Indian data. Civil statutes define people’s rights and obligations in personal or contractual relationships, and provide remedies when disputes arise. The top five civil statutes invoked in the ten-year period were the civil provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, the Registration of Births and Deaths Act of 1969, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005, and the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996. The civil provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act are the most commonly invoked, with 1.75 million records. They cover claims over loss of life or property, vehicle damage and insurance liability. Section 166, which allows people to seek compensation after an accident, was cited 1.25 million times. The Hindu Marriage Act follows with 1.34 million records. It covers marriage, divorce and separation among Hindus, with contested divorce cited most often, followed by divorce by mutual consent. #CriminalLaw #Legal #Law #India #DataForIndia
Title: Motor vehicle claims and marriage disputes lead civil cases in India’s lower courts Sub-title: Top five most commonly invoked civil legislations (2010–2020) Explanation: A horizontal bar chart ranks the five most commonly invoked civil legislations in descending order by number of records. The civil provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act lead with 1.75 million records, followed by the Hindu Marriage Act with 1.34 million. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act accounts for 852,037 records, the Domestic Violence Act for 398,756, and the Arbitration Act for 332,338. Source: e-Courts, Development Data Lab Judicial Portal Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Motor vehicle claims and marriage disputes lead civil cases in India’s lower courts Sub-title: Top five most commonly invoked civil legislations (2010–2020) Explanation: A horizontal bar chart ranks the five most commonly invoked civil legislations in descending order by number of records. The civil provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act lead with 1.75 million records, followed by the Hindu Marriage Act with 1.34 million. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act accounts for 852,037 records, the Domestic Violence Act for 398,756, and the Arbitration Act for 332,338. Source: e-Courts, Development Data Lab Judicial Portal Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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What are the most commonly invoked criminal laws in the dataset? Read Ameya Bokil and Apoorv Anand’s detailed analysis to find out. dataforindia.com/law-in-indi…

The landscape of the law in India

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.

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Childhood vaccinations are a cornerstone of India’s public health programme, playing an essential role in reducing infant mortality in the country. India provides free immunisation against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases under its Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), including poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, rotavirus diarrhoea and measles. Vaccination coverage has improved sharply over time, especially in rural India. In 1993, fewer than one in three rural children were fully vaccinated. By 2021, this had increased to over three in four children in both rural and urban India. ‘Zero-dose children’ is a term used as a measure of the lack of access to routine immunisation services, and is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as children who have not received the first dose of the DPT vaccine. The share of zero-dose children in India has dropped to just 7%, as of 2021. Despite national gains, there are large differences between states. In 2021, Odisha had the highest share of fully vaccinated children, with coverage well above the national average. Other states where close to nine in ten children are fully vaccinated include West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In contrast, several north-eastern states record some of the lowest vaccination coverage in the country. #Immunisation #PublicHealth #Health #India #DataForIndia
Title: Over 7 in 10 children across India are fully vaccinated, and fewer than 1 in 10 have not received any vaccinations at all. Sub-title: Share of children aged one who have received all vaccines or no vaccines, across Indian states (2021). Explanation: More than 70% of one-year-olds in India are fully vaccinated, while fewer than 10% have received no vaccines. Odisha has the highest share of fully vaccinated children. Several north-eastern states have the highest shares of one-year-olds with no vaccinations. Full vaccination is defined by NFHS as receiving BCG, three doses of oral polio vaccine, three doses of DPT or pentavalent vaccine, and the first dose of measles vaccine. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences. Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Over 7 in 10 children across India are fully vaccinated, and fewer than 1 in 10 have not received any vaccinations at all. Sub-title: Share of children aged one who have received all vaccines or no vaccines, across Indian states (2021). Explanation: More than 70% of one-year-olds in India are fully vaccinated, while fewer than 10% have received no vaccines. Odisha has the highest share of fully vaccinated children. Several north-eastern states have the highest shares of one-year-olds with no vaccinations. Full vaccination is defined by NFHS as receiving BCG, three doses of oral polio vaccine, three doses of DPT or pentavalent vaccine, and the first dose of measles vaccine. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences. Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

Title: Over 7 in 10 children across India are fully vaccinated, and fewer than 1 in 10 have not received any vaccinations at all. Sub-title: Share of children aged one who have received all vaccines or no vaccines, across Indian states (2021). Explanation: More than 70% of one-year-olds in India are fully vaccinated, while fewer than 10% have received no vaccines. Odisha has the highest share of fully vaccinated children. Several north-eastern states have the highest shares of one-year-olds with no vaccinations. Full vaccination is defined by NFHS as receiving BCG, three doses of oral polio vaccine, three doses of DPT or pentavalent vaccine, and the first dose of measles vaccine. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences. Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Over 7 in 10 children across India are fully vaccinated, and fewer than 1 in 10 have not received any vaccinations at all. Sub-title: Share of children aged one who have received all vaccines or no vaccines, across Indian states (2021). Explanation: More than 70% of one-year-olds in India are fully vaccinated, while fewer than 10% have received no vaccines. Odisha has the highest share of fully vaccinated children. Several north-eastern states have the highest shares of one-year-olds with no vaccinations. Full vaccination is defined by NFHS as receiving BCG, three doses of oral polio vaccine, three doses of DPT or pentavalent vaccine, and the first dose of measles vaccine. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences. Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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How does India compare with other countries in its child immunisation efforts? Read @nileena_suresh's piece to find out. dataforindia.com/childhood-i…

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...

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New Data Byte: North-eastern states have the highest shares of workers in government jobs, by @akwaghmare Jobs in the public sector remain among the most sought after in India. The public sector is made up of various departments and arms of the government, including companies run directly by the government. Jobs in the public sector are more secure with greater employment benefits than in the private sector. Yet the public sector can only offer a minority of Indian adults jobs. Just 6% of workers in India are in the public sector. Another 6% of workers are in private companies. The majority of India's workers, meanwhile, are employed in household enterprises. This data comes from the 2023-24 round of India's annual Periodic Labour Force Survey, a nationally representative labour survey conducted by the National Statistics Office. The share of the workforce in government jobs is highest in India's north-east, where the private sector remains small. One in four jobs in Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim are in the public sector. The share of public sector jobs is also high In India's richer and better educated southern states, including Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where between 10% and 15% of the workforce is in the public sector. The share of the workforce in public sector jobs is lowest in India's poorest regions with the lowest levels of education, including large parts of central and northern India. Only 3% of workers in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are in government jobs, while more than 90% of the workforce there works in household enterprises. #Jobs #GovtJobs #Work #India #DataForIndia
Title: Share of government jobs in the workforce by state (2024) Sub-title: North-eastern states have the highest shares of workers in government jobs Explanation: Government jobs account for the highest shares of employment in north-eastern states, with around one in four workers in Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim in government jobs. Shares are much lower in several large northern and central states: 3% in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and 4% in Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has a higher share, at 12%. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office (2023–24) Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Share of government jobs in the workforce by state (2024) Sub-title: North-eastern states have the highest shares of workers in government jobs Explanation: Government jobs account for the highest shares of employment in north-eastern states, with around one in four workers in Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim in government jobs. Shares are much lower in several large northern and central states: 3% in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and 4% in Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has a higher share, at 12%. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office (2023–24) Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data Bytes brings you one chart about India every week, and the story behind the data. Subscribe to receive the next Data Byte, right in your inbox. dataforindia.com/data-bytes/…

Data Bytes

Our weekly newsletter bringing you one chart about India, and the story behind the data.

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🧵 Data For India was at @IndiaFOSS in Bengaluru this September! Over the two days of the conference, we spoke with over a thousand free and open source software enthusiasts about our work and making public data easier to understand and use. At our booth, @nileena_suresh and @TheDataAreClean guided visitors through hands-on activities, inviting them to make guesses about India and compare their answers with the data. The responses opened up many conversations about the gap between data being publicly available and being useful to people. #FOSS #OpenSource #DataForIndia
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Our founder, @Rukmini, also spoke at the conference on “Telling India’s Story Through Data”. She explored why easier access to data needs to go hand in hand with context, so it can help people understand the country and make better decisions. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, joined the activities, and shared their questions and ideas. And thank you to @FOSSUnited for bringing us together.
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Higher education is often seen as a pathway to better job prospects and wages. The share of graduates in India remains quite low, with fewer than 15% of Indians aged 25 and above, or only 140 million people, holding a graduate degree. Among these graduates, unemployment rates are high. Nearly one in seven of India's graduates, or 13%, were unemployed as of 2024. In comparison, the unemployment rate is nearly zero among the illiterate population. Among graduates, the unemployment rate is the highest among those in their twenties, many of whom are likely to be fresh graduates. More than a third of graduates in their early twenties are unemployed, and 85% of all unemployed graduates are under the age of 30. The unemployment rate falls steadily with age. India's high graduate unemployment rate is similar to some low and middle-income developing economies, but is three to five times higher than in advanced economies like Europe and North America. #Graduates #Work #Employment #Jobs #India #DataForIndia
Title: The unemployment rate is highest among graduates and nearly zero among the illiterate population in India Sub-title: Unemployment rate by education level (2024) Explanation: In 2024, unemployment in India increased sharply with education level. The rate was 0.2% among the illiterate population, 1.1% among people with primary education, 3.5% among those with secondary education, and 12.9% among those with higher education. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: The unemployment rate is highest among graduates and nearly zero among the illiterate population in India Sub-title: Unemployment rate by education level (2024) Explanation: In 2024, unemployment in India increased sharply with education level. The rate was 0.2% among the illiterate population, 1.1% among people with primary education, 3.5% among those with secondary education, and 12.9% among those with higher education. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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What kind of jobs do India’s graduates hold, and what are their wages? Read @akwaghmare's piece to find out: dataforindia.com/graduate-em…

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.

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As incomes rise and access to education and healthcare improves, women around the world have chosen to have fewer children. India, too, has seen a stunning decline in family sizes over the last 50 years. In the early 1990s, over a quarter of Indian mothers had more than five children. By 2021, this share was down to 10%, with most mothers having two or fewer children. This shift is also reflected in the decline in India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), a demographic indicator that estimates the average number of children that a woman will have in her lifetime. In 1971, India’s TFR was 5.2, meaning that a woman in India was expected to have 5.2 children on average over her lifetime. India’s TFR had dropped to 1.9 by 2023. As a result of this falling fertility, large families are increasingly rare in India. Families with a larger number of children are more likely to be poorer, and mothers in these families are more likely to have lower levels of education. This suggests that as incomes continue to rise and access to education continues to grow, the share of large families will fall further. #Population #Fertility #TFR #India #DataForIndia
Title: Large families are becoming increasingly uncommon in India Sub-title: Share of mothers by the number of children they have, over time Explanation: The share of mothers with five or more children fell from 27% in 1993 to 8% in 2021, while the share with two children rose from 21% to 39%. Over the same period, the share with one child increased from 17% to 21%, the share with three children rose slightly from 20% to 22%, and the share with four children declined from 15% to 10%. The data excludes women with no children and includes sampled women ages 15–49. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Large families are becoming increasingly uncommon in India Sub-title: Share of mothers by the number of children they have, over time Explanation: The share of mothers with five or more children fell from 27% in 1993 to 8% in 2021, while the share with two children rose from 21% to 39%. Over the same period, the share with one child increased from 17% to 21%, the share with three children rose slightly from 20% to 22%, and the share with four children declined from 15% to 10%. The data excludes women with no children and includes sampled women ages 15–49. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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How is this shift also leading to changes in the age at which Indian mothers have their children? Read @Rukmini's analysis to learn more. dataforindia.com/mother-age-…

Mother's age at childbirth

The majority of births every year in India are to women in their twenties. But as family sizes decline, the age at which women have their children is changing in unusual ways.

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New Data Byte: The richest Indian households can eat fruit most often, by @nileena_suresh India's richest households are nearly twice as likely to eat fruit every week as those who live in its poorest households. In contrast, rich and poor households are equally likely to eat fried foods. The National Family Health Survey asks respondents a series of questions on how often they consume specific food items. Respondents are asked whether they eat items such as fruits, fried foods, milk and vegetables daily, weekly, occasionally, or not at all. The survey also measures household wealth using an index based on assets and housing conditions. Households are then ranked and divided into five equal groups or quintiles. Those in poorer households eat fried food more frequently than fruits. According to the National Institute of Nutrition, unhealthy, highly processed, high-fat, sugar and salt foods have become more affordable and accessible than the healthier alternatives like fruits. Low fruit intake can lead to deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals, which can affect immunity and overall health. At the same time, frequent consumption of fried food is associated with higher risks of obesity, heart disease and other non-communicable diseases. Together, these trends suggest that poorer households may be more exposed to both under-nutrition and diet-related health issues. There are also differences across regions and gender. Urban populations tend to consume fruits more frequently than rural populations, although fried food consumption remains common in both. Women generally report slightly lower consumption of both fruits and fried foods compared to men. #Fruit #Food #Health #India #DataForIndia
Title: Household weekly food consumption (2021) Sub-title: The richest Indian households can eat fruit most often Explanation: Fruit consumption rises sharply with household wealth: 69% of the richest households eat fruit weekly, compared with 52% of middle-income households and 36% of the poorest. Weekly fried food consumption is almost identical across wealth groups, at 43–44%. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Household weekly food consumption (2021) Sub-title: The richest Indian households can eat fruit most often Explanation: Fruit consumption rises sharply with household wealth: 69% of the richest households eat fruit weekly, compared with 52% of middle-income households and 36% of the poorest. Weekly fried food consumption is almost identical across wealth groups, at 43–44%. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data Bytes brings you one chart about India every week, and the story behind the data. Subscribe to receive the next Data Byte, right in your inbox. dataforindia.com/data-bytes/…

Data Bytes

Our weekly newsletter bringing you one chart about India, and the story behind the data.

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