Work
Self-employment
The self-employed make up the majority of the Indian workforce. But self-employment plays out in different ways among men and women, and between rural and urban India

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Population
Indians now make up the largest group of emigrants in the world, but their destination countries have changed significantly over time
Measurement
Accurate estimations of demographic trends are vital for planning. India has both a direct and an indirect system to count births and deaths. How did they develop, what works and doesn't, and how can they be improved?
Whether in the north or the south, Indian states are all seeing their populations begin to age. However over a decade separates India's youngest and oldest states, and the southern states are already seeing a shrinking working-age population
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
Indians are consuming more dairy, and spending more of their food budgets on dairy products. But wealth affects consumption and gender gaps persist
Most Indians eat meat, and the share who eat meat is growing over time. Vegetarianism is more prevalent in some states and among some groups
The ownership of assets is one way to understand living standards in a country. In India, TVs are the most commonly owned of four key assets
Nearly everyone in India now has a bank account. However, some gender gaps remain, and not everyone with an account uses it
Most Indians can send messages, but far fewer have the information and communications technology (ICT) skills needed to do calculations, make presentations or write code. There are large gaps between rural and urban Indians, and between men and women.
India has made major strides in improving sanitation, but one in four rural households still does not have access to toilets
After being low by global standards for decades, and falling further since the mid 2000s, the share of Indian women who are in the labour force has increased. We examine the parts of the workforce and the economy where these changes have occurred
Who is in India’s labour force, who is out of it, what work people in the labour force do, and who is unemployed
The 2022-23 and 2023-24 rounds of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey appeared to show large, unexplained deviations on several important indicators. Our research identifies the error that drove those swings
How the NFHS has evolved over time, how it collects its data, and key discussions and debates around it
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