Loading…
The National Statistics Office released district-level estimates of the unincorporated non-agricultural sector on 10 September 2026 — the first time a large nationwide Indian survey has been disaggregated to the district.
The estimates are drawn from the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) 2025 and cover 757 of the 770 districts in the sampling frame.
Activity is heavily concentrated: the top 10 districts hold about a tenth of all establishments, workers and GVA, and the top 50 nearly a third.
Women form at least a third of the informal workforce in 237 districts and a majority in 25, with the highest shares clustered in Telangana, Manipur and Meghalaya.
All-India GVA per worker in the sector stands at Rs 1,56,539, exceeded in 280 districts.
Nodal ministry for India's official statistics; releases GDP, CPI, PLFS and ASUSE
Conducts large-scale sample surveys and compiles national accounts; carried out ASUSE 2025 and this district-level dissemination
Advisory body on statistical matters set up in 2005 on the Rangarajan Commission's recommendation
Female participation peaks in eastern and north-eastern districts, while sheer scale of informal enterprise concentrates in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The two patterns barely overlap, which is the release's central finding.
PLFS measures who works; ASUSE measures the enterprises they work in. Read together they explain why headline employment can rise while productivity stays flat.
District data show high female participation clustering with high female ownership of proprietary establishments — Nirmal has both the top workforce share and nearly 80 per cent women-owned proprietary units.
Unincorporated establishments are the pool from which formalisation drives such as Udyam and PM Vishwakarma must draw.
District-level economic data gives NITI Aayog's district-focused programmes a productivity indicator they previously lacked.
GS Paper III > Indian Economy — growth, employment, informal sector; GS Paper II > Government policies and statistical systems
General Awareness > Economy and current affairs
General Awareness > Indian economy, MSME credit
Establishments not registered as companies — proprietary and partnership units in manufacturing, trade and services, excluding agriculture other than livestock
Output minus intermediate consumption; GDP equals GVA plus product taxes minus subsidies
Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises, run by the NSO since 2021-22 to measure the informal enterprise economy
Average annual payment to workers employed for wages, distinct from owners and unpaid family workers