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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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: www.dataforindia.com/data-bytes/#...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Households are then ranked and divided into five equal groups or quintiles. Those in poorer households eat fried food more frequently than fruits.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

🧵 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. #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

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How does life expectancy look across Indian states? Read Rukmini S’ analysis to find out: www.dataforindia.com/life-expecta...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

By 2024, a newborn girl could expect to live more than three years longer than a boy born in the same year. This female advantage is large and well established only in India’s richer states. In poorer states, it is smaller and more recent.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

However, this global trend did not hold true in India in the first few decades of Independence. In the 1950s, Indian men lived longer than women. That male advantage was reversed only in the early 1980s.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Girls are more likely to survive infancy and early childhood, while men are more likely to die from accidents in young adulthood and non-communicable diseases in old age, partly because of differences in health behaviours.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This data for India and other countries comes from the World Population Prospects, 2024 Revision, published by the United Nations Population Division. Across the world, women tend to live longer than men owing to a combination of biological and social factors.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Life expectancy is the average number of years a person would live if they were exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at that time.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🧵 In 1950, a child born in India could expect to live only until the age of 41. By 2024, life expectancy at birth in India had risen to 72 years. #LifeExpectancy #Ageing #Population #India #DataForIndia

Title: The female advantage in life expectancy in India appeared only in the 1980s

Sub-title: Life expectancy at birth in India by gender, 1950–2024

Explanation: Life expectancy rose substantially for both women and men, from about 41 years in 1950 to 74 years for women and 71 years for men in 2024. Men had a slightly higher life expectancy until the early 1980s, when women overtook them. The female advantage then widened, reaching more than three years by 2024. Both groups experienced a sharp temporary decline around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division

Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How does two-wheeler ownership look across economic classes in India? Read Abhishek Waghmare’s piece to learn more: www.dataforindia.com/vehicle-owne...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

By 2024, car ownership has risen meaningfully only among the richest 20% of households, but even among them fewer than one in five own a car. Among all other quintiles, car ownership has remained below 6% of households, and below 3% for the bottom three quintiles.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nearly four decades ago, car ownership was rare across all economic classes. Fewer than 1% of households in even the richest quintile owned a car. #India #DataForIndia

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The HCES also classifies people by monthly per capita consumption expenditure, or average monthly spending per person, and divides them into five equal groups called quintiles. The bottom quintile represents the poorest 20% of the population, while the top quintile represents the richest 20%.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🧵 More than half of Indian households own a motorcycle or scooter, while less than one in ten own a car or jeep as of 2024. This data comes from the nationally representative Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) conducted by the National Statistics Office. #TwoWheeler #Car #Vehicle

Title: Car ownership has significantly increased only for the richest Indians

Sub-title: Share of car ownership by household economic class, over time

Explanation: In 1988, fewer than 1% of households in every economic class owned a car. By 2024, ownership had risen to about 19% among the richest 20% of households and nearly 6% among the next-richest group. It remained below 3% for the other three groups, showing that the increase was concentrated among richer households.

Source: Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, National Statistics Office

Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

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: www.dataforindia.com/data-bytes/#...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Public health facilities account for most institutional deliveries in India, particularly in rural areas. Yet access remains uneven. Among the poorest rural households, more than 25% of births still occur at home.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Some states in particular have seen rapid progress. In Rajasthan and Odisha, for instance, only about one in ten births took place in a health facility in the early 1990s. By 2021, this had increased to more than nine in ten births. #India #DataForIndia

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

India has made significant progress in improving the number of institutional deliveries in the last three decades. In 1993, only about 25% of births took place in a public or private health facility. By 2021 this increased to nearly 90% of deliveries, and much of this progress came from rural areas.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Ensuring that women give birth in a health facility is one of the most effective ways to reduce both maternal and infant deaths. Childbirth can involve complications that require timely medical care, making access to skilled health personnel and emergency obstetric services critical.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Among the larger states, Tamil Nadu and Kerala reported the highest levels of institutional births. At the other end, more than one in five deliveries still took place at home in five of India's states - Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Nagaland - as of 2021. #Child #Health

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🧵 New Data Byte: In most Indian states, 90% of births now take place in healthcare facilities, by Nileena Suresh Institutional births refer to deliveries that take place in a health facility, whether public or private. As of 2021, nearly nine in ten births in India were institutional. #Birth

Title: Share of institutional births in India across states (2021)

Sub-title: Data Byte: In most Indian states, 90% of births now take place in healthcare facilities

Explanation: Most states report institutional birth shares of 80–100%. Meghalaya and Nagaland have the lowest shares, at around 50%, meaning nearly half of births in these two states happen at home.

Source: National Family Health Survey, IIPS

Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

UPDATE: Our booth is now on the Ground floor! Come find us at IndiaFOSS 2026 this weekend at NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bengaluru.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Also at IndiaFOSS, Rukmini S will speak about “Telling India’s Story Through Data” on Sunday, September 27, at 11:45 am in Hall 1. Register here: fossunited.org/indiafoss/20...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Nileena Suresh and @thedataareclean.com from Data For India will host a hands-on booth to showcase our work on “the last mile of public data”. Together, we will explore what stands between data being publicly available and being genuinely usable. Come meet us on the 1st floor!

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

🧵 We are heading to IndiaFOSS 2026 this weekend! Sept 26–27 at NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bengaluru. #OpenData #PublicData #OpenSource #FOSS #DataForIndia

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Early-life factors, including maternal undernutrition, may also increase susceptibility to obesity later in life. How does obesity vary across different states in India? Read Nileena Suresh’s analysis to find out: www.dataforindia.com/obesity/?utm...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Greater access to ultra-processed foods, changing meal patterns and lower levels of physical activity may contribute to higher rates in urban areas. Among women, biological and hormonal changes, particularly with age, may increase the risk.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Overweight and obesity are more prevalent in urban areas and among women. More than one in three urban women are overweight or obese, and nearly three in ten urban men fall into these categories.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

We monitor both overweight and obesity levels, because the Indian population faces health risks at lower BMI levels than many western populations, particularly the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. The NFHS classifies a BMI of 25 kg/m² or higher as overweight and 30 kg/m² or higher as obese, following the World Health Organization (WHO) definition.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This data comes from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), which surveyed over 600,000 households in 2021 and recorded anthropometric measurements such as height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Excess body weight increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension, making obesity a growing public health concern.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

🧵 Obesity is rising in India. In 2021, almost a quarter of adults aged 15–49 were overweight or obese. By 2024, this figure had reached nearly 30%. #Obesity #Overweight #Health #DataForIndia #India

Title: A quarter of all Indian adults are overweight or obese

Sub-title: Share of overweight and obese men and women across sector (2021)

Explanation: Overweight and obesity were more common in urban India than in rural India. Among urban adults, 30% of men and 34% of women were overweight or obese. In rural areas, the corresponding shares were 19% for both men and women. Obesity alone was most prevalent among urban women, at 11%.

Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences

Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

How does self-employment in India break down by type and gender? Read Abhishek Waghmare’s piece to find out: www.dataforindia.com/self-employm...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Self-employed people may be own-account workers who run their own enterprise without employees, employers who run the enterprise by hiring paid employees, or unpaid helpers who work in a household enterprise for no wages.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Among workers who have a higher education, 40% are in self-employment, while nearly 60% are in salaried work. Among illiterate workers, on the other hand, 66% are self-employed while just 7% are in salaried work.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Unlike salaried and casual workers, the self-employed are not paid wages, but their earnings come from the profits of the enterprise. Workers with lower levels of education are much more likely to be self-employed, while those with a higher education are more likely to be in salaried work.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

India's labour statistics define the self-employed as persons who operate their own farm or non-farm enterprise, or are engaged independently in a profession or trade on their own, or with one or a few partners in household enterprises.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🧵 Six in ten workers in India are self-employed, making up the largest category of workers. #Employment #SelfEmployment #Work #India #DataForIndia

Title: The less educated are more likely to be self-employed in India

Sub-title: Type of employment, by education level (2024)

Explanation: Self-employment becomes less common as education levels rise, falling from 66% among illiterate workers to 40% among workers with higher education. Salaried work shows the opposite pattern, rising from about 7% among illiterate workers to 58% among those with higher education. Casual work also declines sharply, from 28% to about 2%.

Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office

Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

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: www.dataforindia.com/data-bytes/#...

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A large number of those in prison are undertrials. 85% of the incarcerated young men in Punjab's jails and 96% in Delhi's jails were undertrials, meaning that they were awaiting completion of their trial and had yet to be convicted of an offence.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

With an incarceration rate of over 400, over one in every 250 young men in these two states is in prison. For context, the United States of America, which has among the highest incarceration rates in the world, had 520 people in prison for every 100,000 residents in 2023.

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Data For India @dataforindia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Punjab has India's highest incarceration rate, led to a large extent by charges under anti-narcotics laws. Young men in the 18-30 age group in Punjab and Delhi are ten times more likely to be in prison than an average person in the country.

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