Mapped: Indian States with Cities Over 1 Million People

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.