India’s official statistical system is set to expand to the city level, with the National Statistics Office (NSO) proposing annual data reports for 47 million-plus cities using existing large-scale surveys.
The proposal by NSO, under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), aims to generate statistically robust city-level estimates by leveraging datasets from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE).
The move is significant as official data at the city level remains limited despite rapid urbanisation and the growing economic role of urban centres, creating constraints for policy planning and analysis.
Under the framework, two annual thematic reports are proposed.
One will present employment profiles across million-plus cities, including indicators such as Labour Force Participation Rate, Worker Population Ratio, and Unemployment Rate.
The second will present a City-Level Profile of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises, capturing the scale, structure, employment, and economic performance of the urban informal sector.
The initiative aims to enhance the availability of granular urban statistics, support city-level policy formulation, contribute to city-level GDP estimation, and improve understanding of urban labour markets and enterprise dynamics, according to the MoSPI.
The reports will be disseminated annually in the public domain usinguser-friendly formats, the ministry added.
The initiative is expected to support more granular policy formulation, improve understanding of urban labour markets, and contribute to city-level economic estimation.
A consultation paper on the proposed framework for generation of city-level estimates based on the existing PLFS and ASUSE data has been uploaded on the MoSPI website for wider consultation of stakeholders.
Feedback has been invited until 15 May 2026.
