India’s biggest cities have 2 crore informal workers; Hyderabad leads with 15.7 lakh
Roughly 26% — or 52 lakh — of the informal workers in the country’s most populous 46 cities are women
Informal businesses are widely thought to operate largely in the rural heartland of the country. However, a new government report has shed light on the size of the informal sector in India’s urban centres, estimating that the country’s 46 most populous cities have 1.98 crore people working in 1 crore informal establishments.
Greater Hyderabad tops the list of cities with the highest number of informal workers at 15.7 lakh, with Kolkata home to the greatest number of informal establishments — 8.84 lakh.
As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) report on urban unincorporated enterprises in cities whose population exceeded 1 million (10 lakh) as per Census 2011, six had more than a million informal workers: Greater Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Surat, Greater Mumbai, and Jaipur. Together, these six cities account for 40% of all informal workers in the country’s 46 cities with more than a million people each. The number of unincorporated establishments in these six cities is estimated to be nearly 39 lakh, or around 39% of the total in the 46 cities.
The total number of informal workers in India in 2025 was 12.81 crore.
Of the 1.98 crore informal workers in these 46 cities, roughly 26% — or 52 lakh — were women. Greater Visakhapatnam had the highest percentage of female workers at 42.5%, with Surat close behind at 41.4%. Srinagar was last at 10.5%, just below Varanasi at 12.1%. The report on the unincorporated enterprises in million-plus cities is the second such report released by MoSPI on India’s biggest cities. The first was on their labour market dynamics, based on the results of the Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2025.
“This report presents, for the first time, a comprehensive statistical profile of 46 million-plus cities,” Geeta Singh Rathore, Director General of MoSPI’s National Sample Survey, said. She added that since the estimates are based on sample survey data, “differences observed across cities may arise from variations in economic structure, industrial composition, local conditions and sampling variability”.
The city-level estimates are generated from MoSPI’s Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) for 2025, which covers India’s unincorporated, non-agricultural enterprises, excluding construction. These enterprises make up a sizable portion of the economy and include the likes of small manufacturers, service providers, and trading units.
Spread of cities
The 46 million-plus cities account for about 13% of establishments, 16% of workers, and 21% of Gross Value Added (GVA) of the unincorporated non-agricultural sector as per the ASUSE 2025 survey. These 46 cities are from 17 states and Union Territories: 10 from Maharashtra, seven from Uttar Pradesh, four each from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, three each from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, and West Bengal, and one apiece from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, and Telangana.
As The Indian Express had reported earlier this year in March, the number of informal establishments in the entire country rose by 58.5 lakh in 2025 to 7.92 crore, down from an increase of 83.5 lakh in 2023-24 (October-September). As a result, fewer jobs were created: 74.5 lakh in 2025 compared to 1.1 crore in the 12 months ended September 2024. Informal sector pay rose by just 3.9% in 2025, less than half the 13% increase seen in 2023-24.
Pay and productivity
In terms of total pay, emolument per worker was the highest in Jaipur, at Rs 2.33 lakh — although this only considers those unincorporated establishments with hired workers. Greater Hyderabad was second, at Rs 2.14 lakh. Emoluments refers to the total compensation a worker receives, inclusive of salary and benefits.
Meanwhile, informal enterprises in Gwalior paid hired workers the least at Rs 88,853, with Varanasi second from bottom at Rs 1 lakh. On average, emolument per worker in the 46 cities was Rs 1.5 lakh per year.
With the government releasing details for the 46 million-plus cities for the first time, comparative data on wages and the number of informal jobs is unavailable. Consequently, there is no way to calculate how much wages increased in 2025.
While informal workers in Jaipur got paid the most, they were not the most productive; that title belonged to Pimpri-Chinchwad, where the GVA per worker stood at Rs 2.9 lakh – significantly higher than Jaipur, which ranked 13th at Rs 2.23 lakh.
Once again, Gwalior ranked last, with a GVA per worker of just Rs 98,273. Unsurprisingly, informal firms in Gwalior were the least productive of the 46 million-plus cities, with the GVA per establishment amounting to just Rs 1.78 lakh per year — less than a quarter of the city ranked first — Faridabad — where each establishment’s GVA was Rs 7.75 lakh.
Faridabad also employed 2.98 workers per unincorporated enterprise — the highest in the country. This was more than twice as high as Greater Visakhapatnam, where only 1.45 people were employed per informal establishment. The average for the 46 cities is 1.96.
Informal businesses are widely thought to operate largely in the rural heartland of the country. However, a new government report has shed light on the size of the informal sector in India’s urban centres, estimating that the country’s 46 most populous cities have 1.98 crore people working in 1 crore informal establishments.
Greater Hyderabad tops the list of cities with the highest number of informal workers at 15.7 lakh, with Kolkata home to the greatest number of informal establishments — 8.84 lakh.
As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) report on urban unincorporated enterprises in cities whose population exceeded 1 million (10 lakh) as per Census 2011, six had more than a million informal workers: Greater Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Surat, Greater Mumbai, and Jaipur. Together, these six cities account for 40% of all informal workers in the country’s 46 cities with more than a million people each. The number of unincorporated establishments in these six cities is estimated to be nearly 39 lakh, or around 39% of the total in the 46 cities.
The total number of informal workers in India in 2025 was 12.81 crore.
Of the 1.98 crore informal workers in these 46 cities, roughly 26% — or 52 lakh — were women. Greater Visakhapatnam had the highest percentage of female workers at 42.5%, with Surat close behind at 41.4%. Srinagar was last at 10.5%, just below Varanasi at 12.1%. The report on the unincorporated enterprises in million-plus cities is the second such report released by MoSPI on India’s biggest cities. The first was on their labour market dynamics, based on the results of the Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2025.
“This report presents, for the first time, a comprehensive statistical profile of 46 million-plus cities,” Geeta Singh Rathore, Director General of MoSPI’s National Sample Survey, said. She added that since the estimates are based on sample survey data, “differences observed across cities may arise from variations in economic structure, industrial composition, local conditions and sampling variability”.
The city-level estimates are generated from MoSPI’s Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) for 2025, which covers India’s unincorporated, non-agricultural enterprises, excluding construction. These enterprises make up a sizable portion of the economy and include the likes of small manufacturers, service providers, and trading units.
Spread of cities
The 46 million-plus cities account for about 13% of establishments, 16% of workers, and 21% of Gross Value Added (GVA) of the unincorporated non-agricultural sector as per the ASUSE 2025 survey. These 46 cities are from 17 states and Union Territories: 10 from Maharashtra, seven from Uttar Pradesh, four each from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, three each from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, and West Bengal, and one apiece from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, and Telangana.
As The Indian Express had reported earlier this year in March, the number of informal establishments in the entire country rose by 58.5 lakh in 2025 to 7.92 crore, down from an increase of 83.5 lakh in 2023-24 (October-September). As a result, fewer jobs were created: 74.5 lakh in 2025 compared to 1.1 crore in the 12 months ended September 2024. Informal sector pay rose by just 3.9% in 2025, less than half the 13% increase seen in 2023-24.
Pay and productivity
In terms of total pay, emolument per worker was the highest in Jaipur, at Rs 2.33 lakh — although this only considers those unincorporated establishments with hired workers. Greater Hyderabad was second, at Rs 2.14 lakh. Emoluments refers to the total compensation a worker receives, inclusive of salary and benefits.
Meanwhile, informal enterprises in Gwalior paid hired workers the least at Rs 88,853, with Varanasi second from bottom at Rs 1 lakh. On average, emolument per worker in the 46 cities was Rs 1.5 lakh per year.
With the government releasing details for the 46 million-plus cities for the first time, comparative data on wages and the number of informal jobs is unavailable. Consequently, there is no way to calculate how much wages increased in 2025.
While informal workers in Jaipur got paid the most, they were not the most productive; that title belonged to Pimpri-Chinchwad, where the GVA per worker stood at Rs 2.9 lakh – significantly higher than Jaipur, which ranked 13th at Rs 2.23 lakh.
Once again, Gwalior ranked last, with a GVA per worker of just Rs 98,273. Unsurprisingly, informal firms in Gwalior were the least productive of the 46 million-plus cities, with the GVA per establishment amounting to just Rs 1.78 lakh per year — less than a quarter of the city ranked first — Faridabad — where each establishment’s GVA was Rs 7.75 lakh.
Faridabad also employed 2.98 workers per unincorporated enterprise — the highest in the country. This was more than twice as high as Greater Visakhapatnam, where only 1.45 people were employed per informal establishment. The average for the 46 cities is 1.96.
