@Rukmini

Knowledge from data for everyone. Founder, @dataforin. Book: "Whole Numbers & Half Truths" (Westland '21).

 Chennai, India
dataforindia.com
Joined July 2011
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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinOct 23
New Data Byte: Tobacco usage in India is highest among older people, by @nileena_suresh About one in four Indians over the age of 15 reported smoking or using some form of tobacco as of 2021, according to the National Family Health Survey 2019-21. However, there is a significant divide in tobacco consumption between younger and older adults. Across the population, over one in three Indians in their 40s and 50s consume tobacco, compared to just half that share among those in their 20s. The gap is particularly striking among men. Over half of Indian men in their 30s and 40s consume tobacco, whereas the share is just over a quarter among men in their 20s. Tobacco consumption is much less common among women. Overall, just 4% of women consume tobacco in some form. However, even among women, prevalence increases with age, reaching about 17% among women aged 50 and above. Tobacco is consumed in many forms, the most common being paan masala or gutkha, followed by cigarettes, khaini and bidis. Across age groups, chewing tobacco like gutkha, paan masala and khaini is more common than smoking. About two-thirds of tobacco users consume these products, while around half smoke bidis or cigarettes. Regardless of the form, tobacco has serious health consequences and is a major risk factor for serious non-communicable diseases, like cancers, heart disease and respiratory illnesses. This generational gap is observed globally. Across most countries, younger people are less likely to use tobacco than their older counterparts. #Tobacco #Gutkha #Health #India #DataForIndia
Title: Share of people who smoke/use tobacco by age-group (2021) Sub-title: Tobacco usage in India is highest among older people Explanation: Tobacco use rises with age, from 5% among teenagers and 16% among people in their 20s to 26% in their 30s, 31% in their 40s, and 33% among people over 50. Source: National Family Health Survey; International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Share of people who smoke/use tobacco by age-group (2021) Sub-title: Tobacco usage in India is highest among older people Explanation: Tobacco use rises with age, from 5% among teenagers and 16% among people in their 20s to 26% in their 30s, 31% in their 40s, and 33% among people over 50. Source: National Family Health Survey; International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinOct 26
Climate across India is influenced by factors such as latitude, elevation, land use, proximity to the coast and atmospheric circulation. These geographical differences mean that warming affects different seasons and regions differently. Using daily gridded temperature data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), we analyse mean temperature anomalies across India for the 2015-2025 period relative to the 1991-2020 climatological baseline. Since temperatures naturally vary across India, anomalies offer a more consistent way to compare warming across regions and over time. Negative anomalies (shown in blue) indicate temperatures cooler than the baseline average, while positive anomalies (shown in red) indicate warmer-than-baseline conditions. Winter in India shows the most geographically widespread warming of all four seasons, with positive anomalies across almost the entire country. This means that our winters are becoming warmer, and nearly all states show temperatures above the 1991-2020 average. Warming is strongest in north-western India. Parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh show anomalies exceeding +0.5°C, locally approaching +1.1°C. The central and southern states, including Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, show smaller increases of around +0.2°C to +0.5°C. Warmer winter conditions have important implications for rabi agriculture, which is particularly sensitive to rising temperatures. They can also increase crop water stress and alter irrigation requirements. #Heat #GlobalWarming #Winter #Temperature #India #DataForIndia
Title: Winters in India are warming the most uniformly of all four seasons Sub-title: Mean winter temperature anomalies, 2015–2025, relative to 1991–2020 Explanation: Winter shows warming across nearly all of India. The strongest increases are in the northwest, locally approaching 1.1°C, while central and southern areas generally show smaller increases of about 0.2°C to 0.5°C. Source: India Meteorological Department Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Winters in India are warming the most uniformly of all four seasons Sub-title: Mean winter temperature anomalies, 2015–2025, relative to 1991–2020 Explanation: Winter shows warming across nearly all of India. The strongest increases are in the northwest, locally approaching 1.1°C, while central and southern areas generally show smaller increases of about 0.2°C to 0.5°C. Source: India Meteorological Department Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Statement on The Atlantic article concerning “The Blue Fighter”

Article · @S_S_Kundizeza
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Rukmini S retweeted
MSSRF
@mssrfOct 22
Today at 4PM! Telling India's Story Through Data | Seminar by @Rukmini, Founder, Data for India Zoom link: us06web.zoom.us/j/8915846143…

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

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MSSRF
@mssrfOct 14
What stories can data tell us about India? Join us for a special seminar by @Rukmini S—founder of @dataforin, former National Data Editor at The Hindu and HuffPost India, and author of ‘Whole Numbers & Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India’ 📅 22 October | 4 PM 📍 MSSRF, Chennai 🎟️RSVP: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Mx7u… #DataForIndia
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Rukmini S retweeted
MSSRF
@mssrfOct 14
What stories can data tell us about India? Join us for a special seminar by @Rukmini S—founder of @dataforin, former National Data Editor at The Hindu and HuffPost India, and author of ‘Whole Numbers & Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India’ 📅 22 October | 4 PM 📍 MSSRF, Chennai 🎟️RSVP: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Mx7u… #DataForIndia
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Rukmini S retweeted
Milan Vaishnav@MilanVOct 14
.@Rukmini: The number of Indian women in the agricultural workforce is the highest it has been in 30 years. And for the first time, the number of men working in services has surpassed the number of men working in agriculture dataforindia.com/the-big-shi…
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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinOct 8
🧵 Data For India was at @IndiaFOSS in Bengaluru this September! Over the two days of the conference, we spoke with over a thousand free and open source software enthusiasts about our work and making public data easier to understand and use. At our booth, @nileena_suresh and @TheDataAreClean guided visitors through hands-on activities, inviting them to make guesses about India and compare their answers with the data. The responses opened up many conversations about the gap between data being publicly available and being useful to people. #FOSS #OpenSource #DataForIndia
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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinOct 5
As incomes rise and access to education and healthcare improves, women around the world have chosen to have fewer children. India, too, has seen a stunning decline in family sizes over the last 50 years. In the early 1990s, over a quarter of Indian mothers had more than five children. By 2021, this share was down to 10%, with most mothers having two or fewer children. This shift is also reflected in the decline in India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), a demographic indicator that estimates the average number of children that a woman will have in her lifetime. In 1971, India’s TFR was 5.2, meaning that a woman in India was expected to have 5.2 children on average over her lifetime. India’s TFR had dropped to 1.9 by 2023. As a result of this falling fertility, large families are increasingly rare in India. Families with a larger number of children are more likely to be poorer, and mothers in these families are more likely to have lower levels of education. This suggests that as incomes continue to rise and access to education continues to grow, the share of large families will fall further. #Population #Fertility #TFR #India #DataForIndia
Title: Large families are becoming increasingly uncommon in India Sub-title: Share of mothers by the number of children they have, over time Explanation: The share of mothers with five or more children fell from 27% in 1993 to 8% in 2021, while the share with two children rose from 21% to 39%. Over the same period, the share with one child increased from 17% to 21%, the share with three children rose slightly from 20% to 22%, and the share with four children declined from 15% to 10%. The data excludes women with no children and includes sampled women ages 15–49. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Large families are becoming increasingly uncommon in India Sub-title: Share of mothers by the number of children they have, over time Explanation: The share of mothers with five or more children fell from 27% in 1993 to 8% in 2021, while the share with two children rose from 21% to 39%. Over the same period, the share with one child increased from 17% to 21%, the share with three children rose slightly from 20% to 22%, and the share with four children declined from 15% to 10%. The data excludes women with no children and includes sampled women ages 15–49. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute for Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinSep 30
In 1950, a child born in India could expect to live only until the age of 41. By 2024, life expectancy at birth in India had risen to 72 years. Life expectancy is the average number of years a person would live if they were exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at that time. This data for India and other countries comes from the World Population Prospects, 2024 Revision, published by the United Nations Population Division. Across the world, women tend to live longer than men owing to a combination of biological and social factors. Girls are more likely to survive infancy and early childhood, while men are more likely to die from accidents in young adulthood and non-communicable diseases in old age, partly because of differences in health behaviours. However, this global trend did not hold true in India in the first few decades of Independence. In the 1950s, Indian men lived longer than women. That male advantage was reversed only in the early 1980s. By 2024, a newborn girl could expect to live more than three years longer than a boy born in the same year. This female advantage is large and well established only in India’s richer states. In poorer states, it is smaller and more recent. #LifeExpectancy #Ageing #Population #India #DataForIndia
Title: The female advantage in life expectancy in India appeared only in the 1980s Sub-title: Life expectancy at birth in India by gender, 1950–2024 Explanation: Life expectancy rose substantially for both women and men, from about 41 years in 1950 to 74 years for women and 71 years for men in 2024. Men had a slightly higher life expectancy until the early 1980s, when women overtook them. The female advantage then widened, reaching more than three years by 2024. Both groups experienced a sharp temporary decline around the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: The female advantage in life expectancy in India appeared only in the 1980s Sub-title: Life expectancy at birth in India by gender, 1950–2024 Explanation: Life expectancy rose substantially for both women and men, from about 41 years in 1950 to 74 years for women and 71 years for men in 2024. Men had a slightly higher life expectancy until the early 1980s, when women overtook them. The female advantage then widened, reaching more than three years by 2024. Both groups experienced a sharp temporary decline around the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinSep 24
We are heading to IndiaFOSS 2026 this weekend! September 26–27 at NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bengaluru. @nileena_suresh Suresh and @TheDataAreClean from Data For India will host a hands-on booth to showcase our work on “the last mile of public data”. Together, we will explore what stands between data being publicly available and being genuinely usable. Come meet us on the 1st floor! Also at IndiaFOSS, @Rukmini will speak about "Telling India’s Story Through Data" on Sunday, September 27, at 11:45 am in Hall 1. Register here: fossunited.org/indiafoss/202… #OpenData #PublicData #OpenSource #FOSS #DataForIndia
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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinSep 21
Six in ten workers in India are self-employed, making up the largest category of workers. India's labour statistics define the self-employed as persons who operate their own farm or non-farm enterprise, or are engaged independently in a profession or trade on their own, or with one or a few partners in household enterprises. Unlike salaried and casual workers, the self-employed are not paid wages, but their earnings come from the profits of the enterprise. Workers with lower levels of education are much more likely to be self-employed, while those with a higher education are more likely to be in salaried work. Among workers who have a higher education, 40% are in self-employment, while nearly 60% are in salaried work. Among illiterate workers, on the other hand, 66% are self-employed while just 7% are in salaried work. Self-employed people may be own-account workers who run their own enterprise without employees, employers who run the enterprise by hiring paid employees, or unpaid helpers who work in a household enterprise for no wages. #Employment #SelfEmployment #Work #India #DataForIndia
Title: The less educated are more likely to be self-employed in India Sub-title: Type of employment, by education level (2024) Explanation: Self-employment becomes less common as education levels rise, falling from 66% among illiterate workers to 40% among workers with higher education. Salaried work shows the opposite pattern, rising from about 7% among illiterate workers to 58% among those with higher education. Casual work also declines sharply, from 28% to about 2%. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: The less educated are more likely to be self-employed in India Sub-title: Type of employment, by education level (2024) Explanation: Self-employment becomes less common as education levels rise, falling from 66% among illiterate workers to 40% among workers with higher education. Salaried work shows the opposite pattern, rising from about 7% among illiterate workers to 58% among those with higher education. Casual work also declines sharply, from 28% to about 2%. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinSep 14
When a country’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) drops to 2.1 children per woman, demographers say it has reached “replacement fertility”. This is a key milestone for a country, indicating that the population will eventually stop growing and replace itself. If fertility falls further, the population will decline in absolute numbers over time. India's fertility rate has dropped to 1.9 children per woman as of 2023. In the global conversation around falling birth rates, choices made by women around education and work are usually seen as the leading cause. However India shows that this theory does not hold universally.    In North America, Europe and East Asia, falling fertility could in part be explained by the opportunity costs faced by women who leave the workforce to have children. But most adult women in India do not work for pay outside the home. Yet India’s birth rate is now comparable to Viet Nam’s, where the labour force participation rate for women is two times that of India. The age at which women have their children is also lower in India than in East Asia, North America or Europe, meaning that women delaying childbirth for their careers is also not an explanation for falling fertility here.  In their 2025 book, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People, economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso argue against a grand theory for this trend. Instead, they suggest that many types of improvements in people’s lives have raised the opportunity cost of having children. These may include economic opportunities, but they may also include more leisure, and more ways to spend one’s time.  #Fertility #Births #Population #India #DataForIndia
Title: The share of women in the labour force is more than twice as high in Viet Nam as in India, yet fertility rates are similar Sub-title: Fertility rate and female labour force participation, by country (2022) Explanation: In 2022, 76% of women in Viet Nam were in the labour force, compared with 32% in India. Despite this large difference, both countries had a total fertility rate of about 1.9 children per woman. Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: The share of women in the labour force is more than twice as high in Viet Nam as in India, yet fertility rates are similar Sub-title: Fertility rate and female labour force participation, by country (2022) Explanation: In 2022, 76% of women in Viet Nam were in the labour force, compared with 32% in India. Despite this large difference, both countries had a total fertility rate of about 1.9 children per woman. Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinSep 4
New Data Byte: More pre-teens in India have used the internet than people in their 40s, by @akwaghmare Internet usage in India is heavily concentrated among younger people. Of the 60% of Indians who had used the internet as of 2025, most are in their teens and twenties. Internet usage among people in their thirties and forties, on the other hand, is much lower. Fewer than half of people in their 50s, and fewer than a quarter of people over the age of 60 use the internet. In contrast, nearly all Indians in their late teens and in their twenties use the internet.  This data comes from the Comprehensive Modular Survey - Telecom, a nationally representative survey conducted by India's National Statistics Office. The survey asked people who reported they had used a phone or a computer whether they were able to use the internet, and whether they had used the internet at least once in the three months preceding the survey. A substantial number of children have also used the internet. More than half of children between five and nine years of age (54%) reported having used the internet at least once in the three months preceding the survey. Children between five and nine years of age are more likely to have used the internet than people in their fifties. Access to the internet increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among children and teenagers, likely as a result of lockdowns and online schooling.  #Internet #Teenagers #LivingConditions #India #DataForIndia
Title: Internet usage by age (2025) Sub-title: More pre-teens in India have used the internet than people in their 40s Explanation: Internet use rises sharply with age among children, from 8% of those aged 0–4 to 54% of those aged 5–9 and 81% of those aged 10–14. It peaks at 94% among both 15–19- and 20–29-year-olds, then falls steadily with age: 85% for ages 30–39, 65% for 40–49, 43% for 50–59, and 23% for people aged 60 and above. Source: Comprehensive Modular Survey - Telecom, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Internet usage by age (2025) Sub-title: More pre-teens in India have used the internet than people in their 40s Explanation: Internet use rises sharply with age among children, from 8% of those aged 0–4 to 54% of those aged 5–9 and 81% of those aged 10–14. It peaks at 94% among both 15–19- and 20–29-year-olds, then falls steadily with age: 85% for ages 30–39, 65% for 40–49, 43% for 50–59, and 23% for people aged 60 and above. Source: Comprehensive Modular Survey - Telecom, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 24
Infant mortality, or the death of a child before her first birthday, is a key measure of public health. It reflects the conditions into which children are born, including access to healthcare, nutrition and sanitation. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of children under the age one for every 1,000 live births in a given year. India's IMR in 2023 was 25 deaths for every 1,000 live births, which is nearly 638,000 infants under the age of one who died in India in that year. Within infancy, it is the first week that is the most precarious. Over half of all infant deaths occur in the first week after birth, or in the early neonatal period. While both neonatal (within the first month) and post-neonatal (from the infant's second month to the end of the first year) mortality have declined in India, the decline in mortality rates after the child's first month has been sharper. The share of deaths within the first month has increased from 61% in 2003 to 73% in 2023, meaning that infant deaths are fewer, but are increasingly concentrated in the earliest days of life. #Infant #Deaths #Mortality #Health #India #DataForIndia
Title: Infant deaths are falling in India, but are increasingly concentrated in the first month after birth Sub-title: Neonatal and post-neonatal infant mortality per 1,000 live births, over time Explanation: A stacked area chart shows that India’s infant mortality rate has declined sharply since 1981. Neonatal mortality, or deaths in the first month after birth, has fallen more slowly than post-neonatal mortality. As a result, infant deaths are now increasingly concentrated in the first month after birth. Source: Annual Statistical Reports, Sample Registration System Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Infant deaths are falling in India, but are increasingly concentrated in the first month after birth Sub-title: Neonatal and post-neonatal infant mortality per 1,000 live births, over time Explanation: A stacked area chart shows that India’s infant mortality rate has declined sharply since 1981. Neonatal mortality, or deaths in the first month after birth, has fallen more slowly than post-neonatal mortality. As a result, infant deaths are now increasingly concentrated in the first month after birth. Source: Annual Statistical Reports, Sample Registration System Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 21
New Data Byte: A higher education is associated with a significant wage premium in India, by @akwaghmare One in six Indian workers is a salaried or a regular wage worker. Labour statistics define salaried or regular wage employment as the working arrangement in which employees who work in enterprises owned by others are paid their wages on a regular basis, generally from the same employer.  The wages of salaried workers between 25 and 50 years of age gradually increase with each new year of completed formal education. Here, formal education begins in Grade 1, and a child completes one year in formal education when she successfully clears the first grade. But this increase in wages comes in distinct stages. For workers with zero to seven or eight years in formal education, there is little change in earnings. This means that completing the primary level of education does not raise income levels. The first significant increase in wages is seen for workers who spent 11 or 12 years in education, equivalent to completion of high school. Beyond that, wages continue to gradually rise for workers with every additional year of completed education, meaning that they are enrolled in a higher education programme. The largest increase in wages, however, is for workers with 16 or more years of education. This is equivalent to the completion of a four-year undergraduate programme. Salaried workers with a higher education earn twice that of those with secondary education, and thrice that of those with only primary education.  #Education #Salary #Work #India #DataForIndia
Title: Wages of salaried workers by years spent in education (2024) Sub-title: A higher education is associated with a significant wage premium in India Explanation: Wages are relatively flat for workers with zero to eight years of education, mostly staying below ₹13,000. They begin to rise more clearly after around 10 years of education, reaching about ₹17,500 for workers with 11 to 12 years of education. Wages increase further for workers with higher education, rising to about ₹22,000 to ₹26,500 for those with 13 to 15 years of education, and nearly ₹40,000 for those with 16 or more years of education. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Wages of salaried workers by years spent in education (2024) Sub-title: A higher education is associated with a significant wage premium in India Explanation: Wages are relatively flat for workers with zero to eight years of education, mostly staying below ₹13,000. They begin to rise more clearly after around 10 years of education, reaching about ₹17,500 for workers with 11 to 12 years of education. Wages increase further for workers with higher education, rising to about ₹22,000 to ₹26,500 for those with 13 to 15 years of education, and nearly ₹40,000 for those with 16 or more years of education. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 17
Access to mobile phones and the internet has grown rapidly in India, but many people still lack the technical skills needed to communicate, learn and work effectively using these technologies. More than half of Indian adults can send messages, including on WhatsApp, but only a quarter can send emails. One in five can install or configure software and hardware, or transfer files between devices. More advanced skills are far less common. Fewer than one in ten Indian adults can use spreadsheets or create presentations. Only 1% of Indians report the ability to code.  These trends in ICT skills may partly reflect India’s mobile-first digital adoption. More than eight in ten adults can use mobile phones, but only two in ten can use computers. India is a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which is to substantially increase the proportion of young people and adults with information and communication technology (ICT) skills by 2030. The Indian National Statistics Office's 2022-23 Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS) collects this data on the prevalence of nine ICT skills listed in the SDGs.   #ICT #Technology #DigitalIndia #India #DataForIndia
Title: Only half of all Indian adults can send messages, and a quarter can send emails Sub-title: ICT skills among Indian adults aged 15+ (2023) Explanation: Horizontal bar chart showing the share of Indian adults aged 15 and above who reported having different ICT skills in the preceding three months. Sending messages (includes email) is the most common skill, reported by 53% of adults. Sending emails is much lower, at 26%. Around one in five adults can download and install software (23%), transfer files between devices (19%), or connect and install devices (17%). More advanced skills are rarer: 9% can use formulae in spreadsheets, about 6% can create presentations, and about 1% can write programs or code. Source: Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Only half of all Indian adults can send messages, and a quarter can send emails Sub-title: ICT skills among Indian adults aged 15+ (2023) Explanation: Horizontal bar chart showing the share of Indian adults aged 15 and above who reported having different ICT skills in the preceding three months. Sending messages (includes email) is the most common skill, reported by 53% of adults. Sending emails is much lower, at 26%. Around one in five adults can download and install software (23%), transfer files between devices (19%), or connect and install devices (17%). More advanced skills are rarer: 9% can use formulae in spreadsheets, about 6% can create presentations, and about 1% can write programs or code. Source: Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey, National Statistics Office Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 14
New Data Byte: The gap in life expectancy between India and the UK has halved since Independence, by @Rukmini In 1950, a child born in India could expect to live only until the age of 41, while a child born in the United Kingdom the same year could expect to live to 69 years. Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn would live if they were exposed to the sex- and age-specific death rates prevailing at that time. This is a hypothetical measure that assumes current mortality rates will remain constant throughout the individual's life, providing a snapshot of a population's overall health and mortality conditions at that time. Data on life expectancy for the countries of the world is periodically estimated by the United Nations Population Division. In 1950, India was one of the world's poorest and least developed countries. By 2024, not only had life expectancy in India gone up to 72 years, but the gap between India and the UK had also narrowed substantially, to now being less than a decade apart. The only recent time that life expectancy in India slid backwards was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when life expectancy fell in most countries, reflecting the prevailing health conditions at the time. By 2022, life expectancy was back to its pre-pandemic levels, & on the path to growth, once again.  #Population #LifeExpectancy #DataByte #India #DataForIndia
Title: Life expectancy at birth Sub-title: The gap in life expectancy between India and the UK has halved since Independence Explanation: A line chart compares life expectancy at birth in India and the United Kingdom from 1950 to 2024. In 1950, life expectancy was about 41 years in India and 69 years in the UK. Both countries improved over time, but India’s gains were much steeper, rising to about 72 years by 2024. The UK rose more gradually to about 81 years. The gap between the two countries narrowed from nearly three decades in 1950 to less than a decade in 2024. India shows a sharp temporary drop around the COVID-19 pandemic before recovering. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Life expectancy at birth Sub-title: The gap in life expectancy between India and the UK has halved since Independence Explanation: A line chart compares life expectancy at birth in India and the United Kingdom from 1950 to 2024. In 1950, life expectancy was about 41 years in India and 69 years in the UK. Both countries improved over time, but India’s gains were much steeper, rising to about 72 years by 2024. The UK rose more gradually to about 81 years. The gap between the two countries narrowed from nearly three decades in 1950 to less than a decade in 2024. India shows a sharp temporary drop around the COVID-19 pandemic before recovering. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 12
India's informal sector has remained large over the last two decades despite economic growth. Nine in ten workers in India work in the informal sector, defined as either share of employment outside the formal sector or as informal employment. Most sectors in India still rely largely on informal workforces. The agricultural sector employs the largest number of workers but is almost entirely informal. However, a few sectors, mainly in services, are relatively more formalised.  Public administration, including defence, and information and communication services have the highest share of formal employment, with over four in five jobs in these sectors being formal. A majority of jobs in health and education, as well as in real estate and financial and professional services, are also formal. On the other hand, more than 50 million jobs in manufacturing are informal, compared to nearly 13 million formal jobs. Along with manufacturing, the construction sector and trade enterprises such as commercial shops and wholesale traders have the highest number of informal workers, with over 70 million workers each. #Jobs #InformalSector #Work #India #DataForIndia
Title: Service sectors are more likely to have formal jobs in India Sub-title: Formal and informal jobs by industry (2024) Explanation: Construction, trade and hotels, and manufacturing have the largest informal workforces, with 72 million, 71 million, and 57 million informal workers respectively. Manufacturing also has 13 million formal workers. Health and education has a more balanced split, with 14 million formal workers and 13 million informal workers. Service sectors such as information and communication, public administration, and financial services have smaller total workforces but a higher share of formal employment. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office; Population Projections, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Service sectors are more likely to have formal jobs in India Sub-title: Formal and informal jobs by industry (2024) Explanation: Construction, trade and hotels, and manufacturing have the largest informal workforces, with 72 million, 71 million, and 57 million informal workers respectively. Manufacturing also has 13 million formal workers. Health and education has a more balanced split, with 14 million formal workers and 13 million informal workers. Service sectors such as information and communication, public administration, and financial services have smaller total workforces but a higher share of formal employment. Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, National Statistics Office; Population Projections, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 7
New Data Byte: Most tobacco consumption in India is of gutkha, not cigarettes, by @nileena_suresh The majority of tobacco use in India is of chewing tobacco products such as paan masala, gutkha, or khaini. Gutkha is pre-mixed paan masala with tobacco. Paan masala is also sold separately and mixed with tobacco later to be consumed. Since most tobacco consumption in India is by men, we look at the type of tobacco usage by men. About 40% of men aged 15-49 use tobacco in some form, compared to just 5% of women, according to the National Family Health Survey, 2021. Tobacco use in India as measured by the NFHS includes smoking cigarettes or bidis, as well as chewing tobacco products such as khaini (tobacco leaves mixed with slaked lime), paan masala, gutkha, and other similar preparations. Since respondents may use tobacco in more than one form, the NFHS does not measure consumption of these products as discrete categories. More than a quarter of men chew tobacco products, while under one in five men smoke bidis or cigarettes. Tobacco usage is higher in rural areas, and the form of usage also differs, with cigarette smoking more prevalent among urban men. Both forms of tobacco have major health impacts, including life threatening conditions like cancer of the oral cavity, oesophagus and liver, as well as heart diseases and respiratory illnesses.  #Tobacco #Gutkha #Health #India #DataForIndia
Title: Type of tobacco consumed by men who use tobacco (2021) Sub-title: Most tobacco consumption in India is of gutkha, not cigarettes Explanation: The chart compares the type of tobacco consumed by urban and rural men in India who use tobacco. Gutkha or paan masala is the most common form in both groups, at 37%. Cigarettes are more common among urban men, while khaini and bidi are more common among rural men. Note: Khaini is a mixture of tobacco leaves and slaked lime. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute For Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: Type of tobacco consumed by men who use tobacco (2021) Sub-title: Most tobacco consumption in India is of gutkha, not cigarettes Explanation: The chart compares the type of tobacco consumed by urban and rural men in India who use tobacco. Gutkha or paan masala is the most common form in both groups, at 37%. Cigarettes are more common among urban men, while khaini and bidi are more common among rural men. Note: Khaini is a mixture of tobacco leaves and slaked lime. Source: National Family Health Survey, International Institute For Population Sciences Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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Rukmini S retweeted
Data For India
@dataforinAug 5
🧵 The term 'demographic dividend' refers to a boost in economic growth that a country with a large share of its population in the working age can expect to benefit from, provided the right policies are in operation. This dividend comes not just from the size of the working-age population, but, more importantly, from its relative share in the total population. Two demographic shifts have been reshaping India. First, as fertility rates fall, the share of children (0-14 years) in the population is declining. Second, the elderly population is growing in size. Together, these trends have expanded India’s working-age population (15–60 years) – the only age group that, in economic terms, generates resources and drives growth. But that window is now closing. The working-age population according to Indian demographic statistics makes up over 60% of the population, and is projected to reach its peak over the next three to four years, after which it is projected to decline. In some parts of India, this decline has already begun; in the decade ahead, the southern states will see their working-age populations begin to shrink, even as the north-central states will see their working-age populations continue to grow. #Births #Deaths #Fertility #Population #India #DataForIndia
Title: India’s demographic window is closing Sub-title: Share in total population by age group, over time Explanation: Line chart showing the changing share of India’s population in three age groups from 1950 to 2100. The share of working-age people, aged 15-59, rises from 57 in 1950 to a projected peak of about 65% around 2030, before declining to about 50% by 2100. The share of children aged 0-14 falls from around 40% in the 1950s to a projected 14% by 2100. The share of people aged 60 and above rises from about 5% in 1950 to a projected 36% by 2100. Data after 2024 are projections. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

ALT Title: India’s demographic window is closing Sub-title: Share in total population by age group, over time Explanation: Line chart showing the changing share of India’s population in three age groups from 1950 to 2100. The share of working-age people, aged 15-59, rises from 57 in 1950 to a projected peak of about 65% around 2030, before declining to about 50% by 2100. The share of children aged 0-14 falls from around 40% in the 1950s to a projected 14% by 2100. The share of people aged 60 and above rises from about 5% in 1950 to a projected 36% by 2100. Data after 2024 are projections. Source: World Population Prospects, United Nations Population Division Attribution: Data For India | CC BY

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