India: cities by population
India has a population of 1,476,625,576 (UN estimate, 2026), with New Delhi as its capital. The 50 largest of its 6,998 recorded towns and cities, ranked.
+40%
since 2000 (1,057,922,733)
+14%
projected by 2050 (1,679,589,259)
497
people per km²
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.
Largest cities in India
| # | Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mumbai | Maharashtra | 12,691,836 |
| 2 | Delhi | Delhi | 11,034,555 |
| 3 | Bengaluru | Karnataka | 8,495,492 |
| 4 | Hyderabad | Telangana | 6,993,262 |
| 5 | Ahmedabad | Gujarat | 6,357,693 |
| 6 | Chennai | Tamil Nadu | 4,681,087 |
| 7 | Kolkata | West Bengal | 4,631,392 |
| 8 | Surat | Gujarat | 4,591,246 |
| 9 | Pune | Maharashtra | 3,124,458 |
| 10 | Jaipur | Rajasthan | 3,046,163 |
| 11 | Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh | 2,823,249 |
| 12 | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh | 2,472,011 |
| 13 | Nagpur | Maharashtra | 2,405,665 |
| 14 | Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | 2,136,916 |
| 15 | Indore | Madhya Pradesh | 1,994,397 |
| 16 | Thāne | Maharashtra | 1,841,488 |
| 17 | Vadodara | Gujarat | 1,822,221 |
| 18 | Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh | 1,798,218 |
| 19 | Rasapūdipalem | Andhra Pradesh | 1,728,128 |
| 20 | Pimpri-Chinchwad | Maharashtra | 1,727,692 |
| 21 | Patna | Bihar | 1,684,297 |
| 22 | Kallakurichi | Tamil Nadu | 1,682,687 |
| 23 | Ludhiana | Punjab | 1,618,879 |
| 24 | Nashik | Maharashtra | 1,486,053 |
| 25 | Madurai | Tamil Nadu | 1,465,625 |
| 26 | Tirunelveli | Tamil Nadu | 1,435,844 |
| 27 | Agra | Uttar Pradesh | 1,430,055 |
| 28 | Faridabad | Haryana | 1,414,050 |
| 29 | Rājkot | Gujarat | 1,390,640 |
| 30 | Najafgarh | Delhi | 1,365,000 |
| 31 | Jamshedpur | Jharkhand | 1,339,438 |
| 32 | Gorakhpur | Haryana | 1,324,570 |
| 33 | Pimpri | Maharashtra | 1,284,606 |
| 34 | Kalyān | Maharashtra | 1,262,255 |
| 35 | Dombivali | Maharashtra | 1,247,327 |
| 36 | Meerut | Uttar Pradesh | 1,223,184 |
| 37 | Virār | Maharashtra | 1,222,390 |
| 38 | Nowrangapur | Odisha | 1,220,946 |
| 39 | Srinagar | Jammu and Kashmir | 1,206,419 |
| 40 | Ghāziābād | Uttar Pradesh | 1,199,191 |
| 41 | Dhanbad | Jharkhand | 1,196,214 |
| 42 | Aurangabad | Maharashtra | 1,175,116 |
| 43 | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh | 1,164,404 |
| 44 | Amritsar | Punjab | 1,159,227 |
| 45 | Vijayawada | Andhra Pradesh | 1,143,232 |
| 46 | Ranchi | Jharkhand | 1,120,374 |
| 47 | Jabalpur | Madhya Pradesh | 1,081,677 |
| 48 | Prayagraj | Uttar Pradesh | 1,073,438 |
| 49 | Visakhapatnam | Andhra Pradesh | 1,063,178 |
| 50 | Jodhpur | Rajasthan | 1,056,191 |
Twenty years earlier: India in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 1,094,870,677.
Common questions
What is the population of India?
India has a population of 1,476,625,576, the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2026. The UN's medium-variant projection for 2050 is 1,679,589,259 — a forecast, not a measurement.
What is the capital of India?
New Delhi. The largest place we record there is Mumbai, with 12,691,836 people.