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Mapped: Indian States with Cities Over 1 Million People
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Slightly more than one-third of the 1.4 billion Indian population lives in an urban area. So where are the country’s most populous cities, and how are they spread across the country’s 28 states and eight union territories?
This map shows the number of Indian urban agglomerations (cities) with more than a million residents in each jurisdiction. Data for this graphic is sourced from 2024 urban agglomeration estimates in the UN World Urbanization Prospects.
Ranked: Indian States by Cities with 1M Residents
India’s Uttar Pradesh state has 10 cities with a population size of 1 million or more. It is also India’s most populous state, home to 240 million people. This makes it comparable to the size of Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world.
Indian StateCities with 1M Residents (2024)City Names
Uttar Pradesh10Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Meerut,
Varanasi, Prayagraj,
Bareilly, Aligarh,
Moradabad, Saharanpur
Kerala7Kozhikode,
Malappuram,
Thrissur, Kochi,
Thiruvananthapura,
Kannur, Kollam
Maharashtra6Mumbai, Pune,
Nagpur, Nashik,
Aurangabad, Solapur
Tamil Nadu6Chennai, Coimbatore,
Madurai, Tiruppur,
Tiruchirappalli, Salem
Gujarat4Ahmedabad, Surat,
Vadodara, Rajkot
Madhya Pradesh4Indore, Bhopal,
Jabalpur, Gwalior
Jharkhand3Jamshedpur, Ranchi,
Dhanbad
Karnataka3Bengaluru, Mysore,
Hubli-Dharwad
Punjab3Ludhiana, Amritsar,
Jalandhar
Rajasthan3Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota
West Bengal3Kolkata, Asansol, Siliguri
Andhra Pradesh2Visakhapatnam,
Vijayawada
Chhattisgarh2Raipur, Durg-Bhilainagar
Telangana2Hyderabad, Warangal
Assam1Guwahati
Bihar1Patna
Odisha1Bhubaneswar
Uttarakhand1Dehradun
Chandigarh*1Chandigargh
Delhi*1New Delhi
Jammu & Kashmir*1Srinagar
*Union Territories. Figures rounded. Some city names may have changed since this data was published.
Further south, Kerala (7), Maharashtra (6), and Tamil Nadu (6) also have more than five cities with a million or more people.
Meanwhile, some cities, including India’s national capital, New Delhi, are either in or are themselves union territories—areas directly administered by the central government.
Ten Indian states—most of them from the country’s northeast region—don’t have a single city with 1 million residents.
All together, India has 65 cities with more than one million inhabitants. For comparison, China has 105, and the U.S. has nine.
RankCityState/Union Territory2024 Population
Estimates
1New DelhiDelhi*34M
2MumbaiMaharashtra22M
3KolkataWest Bengal16M
4BengaluruKarnataka14M
5ChennaiTamil Nadu12M
6HyderabadTelangana11M
7AhmadabadGujarat9M
8SuratGujarat8M
9PuneMaharashtra7M
10JaipurRajasthan4M
11KozhikodeKerala4M
12MalappuramKerala4M
13LucknowUttar Pradesh4M
14ThrissurKerala4M
15KochiKerala4M
16IndoreMadhya Pradesh3M
17KanpurUttar Pradesh3M
18NagpurMaharashtra3M
19CoimbatoreTamil Nadu3M
20ThiruvananthapuramKerala3M
21PatnaBihar3M
22BhopalMadhya Pradesh3M
23AgraUttar Pradesh3M
24KannurKerala2M
25VisakhapatnamAndhra Pradesh2M
26VadodaraGujarat2M
27NashikMaharashtra2M
28VijayawadaAndhra Pradesh2M
29KollamKerala2M
30RajkotGujarat2M
31LudhianaPunjab2M
32MaduraiTamil Nadu2M
33RaipurChhattisgarh2M
34MeerutUttar Pradesh2M
35VaranasiUttar Pradesh2M
36SrinagarJammu & Kashmir*2M
37TiruppurTamil Nadu2M
38JamshedpurJharkhand2M
39AurangabadMaharashtra2M
40JodhpurRajasthan2M
41RanchiJharkhand2M
42KotaRajasthan2M
43JabalpurMadhya Pradesh2M
44AsansolWest Bengal2M
45GwaliorMadhya Pradesh2M
46AllahabadUttar Pradesh2M
47AmritsarPunjab1M
48DhanbadJharkhand1M
49BareillyUttar Pradesh1M
50AligarhUttar Pradesh1M
51MoradabadUttar Pradesh1M
52MysoreKarnataka1M
53Durg-BhilainagarChhattisgarh1M
54BhubaneswarOdisha1M
55TiruchirappalliTamil Nadu1M
56ChandigarhChandigarh*1M
57SaharanpurUttar Pradesh1M
58Hubli-DharwadKarnataka1M
59GuwahatiAssam1M
60SalemTamil Nadu1M
61SiliguriWest Bengal1M
62JalandharPunjab1M
63SolapurMaharashtra1M
64WarangalTelangana1M
65DehradunUttarakhand1M
*Union Territories. Figures rounded. Some city names may have changed since this data was published.
Interestingly, three of the five most populous Indian cities (Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai) were villages that became key British trading outposts. As a result all three cities have a fort within their city limits which acted as protection against competing colonial interests at the time.
Finally, Uttar Pradesh—which leads the states by number of cities with 1M people—doesn’t have a single metropolis within the top 10.
The post Mapped: Indian States with Cities Over 1 Million People appeared first on Visual Capitalist.