The Largest Cities in India

Mumbai skyline from Malabar Hill, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Asia — Alex Robinson/Getty Images

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Updated on December 04, 2019

India is one of the largest countries in the world with an estimated population of 1,372,236,549. Researchers predict that this population will rise to higher than 1.5 billion in the next 50 years. Of course, most of these numbers are based on estimates as an official census has not been conducted in India since 2011, but another is scheduled for 2021. Find out why India is growing and which of its cities are largest.

About India

The country of India, formally called the Republic of India, occupies much of the Indian subcontinent that is located in the southern portion of Asia. India is second only to China in population, though it is expected to surpass China's population before long. In addition to being one of the world's largest democracies, India is one of the world's fastest-growing countries in terms of both population and economy.

Why Is India Growing?

There are a few key reasons that India's population continues to soar. The first reason is its fertility rate of about 2.33. For reference, the average replacement fertility rate, which sustains a country's population exactly because there is no net change in the number of people between generations, is 2.1. In other words, a woman must have 2.1 babies (the 0.1 allows for barriers to a woman's reproduction or child's maturation such as death, infertility, etc.) in her lifetime in order to ensure that she and her partner are "replaced" when they die.

India's fertility rate being over 0.2 above this replacement rate means there are more births than deaths. The majority of India's growth, however, is attributed to urbanization and increasing levels of literacy, though it is still considered a developing nation. India's economy is boosted by huge quantities of agricultural and industrial exports.

Largest Cities in India

India covers an area of 1,269,219 square miles (3,287,263 sq km) and is divided into 28 different states and seven union territories. Several of India's capital cities are some of the largest cities in the world. The following is a list of the top 20 largest metropolitan areas in India as of a 2011 census.

Largest Cities in India
	City	State/Territory	Metropolitan Population	City Proper Population
1.	Mumbai	Maharashtra	18,414,288	12,442,373
2.	Delhi	Delhi	16,314,838	11,034,555
3.	Kolkata	West Bengal	14,112,536	4,496,694
4.	Chennai	Tamil Nadu	8,696,010	4,646,732
5.	Bangalore	Karnataka	8,499,399	8,443,675
6.	Hyderabad	Andhra Pradesh	7,749,334	6,731,790
7.	Ahmedabad	Gujarat	6,352,254	5,577,940
8.	Pune	Maharashtra	5,049,968	3,124,458
9.	Surat	Gujarat	4,585,367	4,467,797
10.	Jaipur	Rajasthan	3,046,163	3,046,163
11.	Kanpur	Uttar Pradesh	2,920,067	2,765,348
12.	Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh	2,901,474	2,817,105
13.	Nagpur	Maharashtra	2,497,777	2,405,665
14.	Indore	Madhya Pradesh	2,167,447	1,964,086
15.	Patna	Bihar	2,046,652	1,684,222
16.	Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh	1,883,381	1,798,218
17.	Thane	Maharashtra	1,841,488	1,841,488
18.	Vadodara	Gujarat	1,817,191	1,670,806
19.	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh	1,728,128	1,728,128
20.	Pimpri-Chinchwad	Maharashtra	1,727,692	1,727,692

Cities and Metropolitan Areas

Metropolitan Area Vs. City Proper

The largest cities in India are the largest cities in India no matter how you slice it, but their rankings shift a little when you consider entire metropolitan areas, the suburbs surrounding cities, rather than only cities proper. Some Indian cities are much smaller than their metropolitan areas—it all just depends on how many people are living in a city's center.