This article is about cities (towns with Class-I status or population with 100,000 and above). For towns under 100,000 (100,000) population, see List of towns in India by population.
The following tables are the list of cities in India by population. Often cities are bifurcated into multiple regions (municipalities) which results in creation of cities within cities which may figure in the list. The entire work of this article is based on the census of India using data from the 2001 census of India and the 2011 census of India, conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, under Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
The list is based on population within the boundaries of the respective Municipal Corporations and not the actual urban area.[1][2]
Towns/Cities with populations of 1 lakh (100,000) are categorized as Class-I towns or Cities
The 46 cities with populations of 1 million and above are known as Million Plus UAs or Cities
The 3 UAs with populations of 10 million and above are known as Mega Cities (The census defines the three as Greater Mumbai UA (18.4 million), Delhi UA (16.3 million) and Kolkata UA (14.1 million).[1])
^The 2001 population numbers are sourced directly from 2011 census data. This also allows for sensible comparisons when city boundaries changed between 2001 and 2011.