Sizing Up India’s Most Populous States
Economic development levels vary widely across the country’s states.
June 7, 2016
1. India has three states with a population of more than 100 million people.
2. Uttar Pradesh leads the way with more than 200 million. The others are Maharashtra (112 million) and Bihar (104 million).
3. Maharashtra is around the size as Mexico’s population, the 10th largest national population worldwide.
4. India’s Bihar state is larger than Philippines’s population, the 12th most populous country.
5. Maharashtra is one of India’s more prosperous states, with a per capita GDP of about $6,900, similar to that of Philippines.
6. In contrast, Bihar is India’s poorest state. With a per-person GDP of $1,800, it is on par with Ethiopia.
7. Poor migrant workers from Bihar to other states, such as wealthy Maharashtra, have faced violence from locals in their new communities.
8. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the former State Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, an industrial coastal state next to Pakistan.
9. Gujarat is home to more than 60 million Indians – about the size of Italy’s population – making it the eighth most populous state in India.
10. Gujarat is India’s sixth-wealthiest state in per capita GDP terms, at $6,300 – about the level of Bolivia.
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, IMF, Statistics Times