According to the first-ever district-level estimates from the National Statistics Office (NSO), Haryana leads with seven districts ranking among India's top 50 most productive districts in the informal non-agricultural economy by gross value added (GVA) per worker. Maharashtra follows with six districts, while Tamil Nadu and Telangana each have six districts in the top 50. The estimates, derived from the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) 2025, cover 757 individual districts across all states and Union Territories for the first time. Satara in Maharashtra records the highest output per worker at ₹8.7 lakh, followed by Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab and Tonk in Rajasthan, with the national average at ₹1.56 lakh.
The data reveals sharp geographic concentration of productivity in India's unincorporated sector, with districts in just eight states accounting for 40 of the 50 most productive districts. The NSO estimates that the top 10 districts by estimated number of unincorporated establishments together account for about one-tenth of the total establishments, workers and GVA generated by the sector. The top 50 districts capture nearly one-third of the total establishments, workforce and GVA, with these districts spread across four states: Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
When examining women's participation in the informal sector, the Northeast and southern states dominate the rankings by share of female workers. According to the NSO estimates, the 50 districts with the highest participation lie overwhelmingly in Telangana and the Northeast, with nine districts in Telangana, eight each in Manipur and Mizoram, and six each in Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu. The single most female-intensive district is Nirmal in Telangana, where women make up more than three-quarters of the informal workforce, followed by Imphal East in Manipur and Nizamabad in Telangana. At the other end of the spectrum, women make up just 6.7% of informal workers in Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, followed by Marigaon in Assam at 9.5% and Banaskantha in Gujarat at 10.7%.
Nationally, the NSO estimates that women form a third of the workforce in 237 districts and an outright majority in 25 districts. The ministry reports that the top 10 districts with the highest share of female-led unincorporated establishments are located in Telangana, Manipur and Meghalaya. In Mizoram, female-owned proprietary establishments account for at least 50% of establishments in each district of the state. This data represents the first comprehensive district-level analysis of India's informal non-agricultural economy, providing insights into regional productivity patterns and workforce composition across different states.
