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India's Health in Numbers

What Indians fall ill and die from, how care is organised and paid for, and what this means for medical records. Every figure is sourced.

AuthorPawan Kalyan
Updated6 November 2026
Reading time4 min
Key Points
  • Non-communicable diseases cause 56.7% of deaths; heart disease alone causes 31%[1].
  • 10.1 crore Indians have diabetes and 31.5 crore have high blood pressure[2].
  • Over 15 lakh new cancer cases were estimated in 2024[3]; road crashes kill about 20 people an hour[4].
  • Patients pay about half of current health spending out of their own pockets[5].

The System at a Glance

13.88 lakhRegistered allopathic doctorsRajya Sabha, Dec 2025[6]
7.52 lakhRegistered AYUSH practitionersRajya Sabha, Dec 2025[6]
1 : 811Doctors to people, counting both and assuming 80% are activeRajya Sabha, Dec 2025[6]
49.9%Share of current health expenditure paid out of pocket, 2022–23National Health Accounts[5]
1.43%Government health spending as a share of GDP, 2022–23National Health Accounts, old GDP series[5]
98.9 croreABHA health IDs created, as of 5 November 2026ABDM dashboard[7]

The digital rails are large: 127.5 crore health records are linked to ABHA IDs, and 6.09 lakh facilities and 13.98 lakh professionals are verified[7]. What is still thin is the record written at the point of care, in a two-minute consultation[8].

Life and Death

72.2 yearsLife expectancy at birth, 2024World Bank[9]
25Infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, down from 40 in 2013SRS 2023[10]
28Deaths before age five per 1,000 live births in 2023, down from 48 in 2015UN IGME[11]

Progress is real but uneven. Infant mortality is 5 per 1,000 in Kerala and 37 in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh; it is 28 in rural India against 18 in cities[10]. Newborn deaths fell from 28 to 17 per 1,000 between 2015 and 2023[11].

What Indians Die Of

Cardiovascular disease31.0%
Respiratory infections9.3%
Cancers6.4%
Respiratory diseases5.7%
Digestive diseases5.3%
Fever of unknown origin4.9%
Unintentional injuries3.7% · excluding road accidents
Diabetes3.5%
Genito-urinary diseases3.0%
Tuberculosis2.5%
Figure 1. Leading causes of death in India, share of all deaths, Sample Registration System 2021–2023[1]. Bars are drawn on a 0 to 40% scale.
Broad group2020–222021–23
Non-communicable diseases55.7%56.7%
Communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional24.0%23.4%
Injuriesnot reported9.4%
Ill-defined causesnot reported10.5%

Source: SRS Causes of Death, as reported[1]. One death in ten still has an ill-defined cause, itself a sign of missing records.

Long-Term Disease

Abdominal obesity35.1 crore
High blood pressure31.5 crore
Generalised obesity25.4 crore
High cholesterol21.3 crore
Prediabetes13.6 crore
Diabetes10.1 crore
Figure 2. People with metabolic conditions, ICMR-INDIAB national study, published 2023 (survey 2008–2020)[2]. Each of these needs medicines for years, often from several doctors, which is where missing and duplicated medicines accumulate.

Cancer

15,33,055Estimated new cancer cases in 2024, up from 14.6 lakh in 2022 and 14.9 lakh in 2023ICMR-NCRP, via Parliament[3]
8.2 lakhEstimated cancer deaths in 2023ICMR-NCRP, via Parliament[3]
27% · 18%Breast and cervical cancer as shares of new cases in women, 2022GLOBOCAN 2022[12][13]
65.7%Five-year breast cancer survival in India (diagnosed 2017–2021), against more than 85% in many high-income countriesWHO estimates, 2026[14]

In men, lip and oral cavity cancer (about 15.6% of new cases) and lung cancer (about 8.5%) lead[13]. Survival depends heavily on early detection, which depends on someone noticing a pattern across visits. More on how other countries achieve higher survival is on the comparison page.

Road Accidents and Emergencies

4,80,583Road accidents in 2023, up 4.2% on 2022MoRTH[15][4]
1,72,890People killed, about 20 every hourMoRTH[4]
4,62,825People injuredMoRTH[4]
Over-speeding68.1% of deaths
Two-wheeler riders44.8% of deaths
Pedestrians20.4% of deaths
Figure 3. Road deaths in 2023 by cause and by road user[4]. Categories overlap: a two-wheeler rider can also have died in an over-speeding crash.

Since May 2025, road accident victims anywhere in India can get cashless treatment of up to ₹1.5 lakh for seven days at designated hospitals[16]. Paying for the first week solves one problem; knowing the victim's blood group, allergies and medicines is another. That is what an emergency card is for.

What Illness Costs Families

5.5 croreIndians pushed into poverty by health spending in a single year; 3.8 crore by medicines alonePHFI study in The BMJ, 2018[17]
80%+Indians with no health expenditure coverage in 2017–18NSS 75th round[18]
80%Rural families who paid for a hospital stay from savings; 13% borrowedNSS 75th round[18]

Medicines are the largest single cause of impoverishment[17]. A record that prevents a duplicate prescription or a repeated test saves money for the family that pays. Insurance has expanded since 2017–18, so the coverage figure is a baseline, not today's number.

Mothers and Inherited Disease

~87Maternal deaths per lakh live birthsSRS special bulletin, 2022–24[19]
10,000–15,000Children born with thalassaemia major each year; 1 to 1.5 lakh living with itUnion Health Minister, 2020[20]

A woman arriving at night in labour may not be able to give her blood group, a previous caesarean or her blood pressure history. Thalassaemia major is preventable when carriers know their status before having children, which requires family records that link, with consent.

Why are these diseases so common in India, and what do countries with lower rates do differently? See India's biggest diseases.

What This Means for Medical Records

  • Long-term disease dominates. Heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure need years of medicines from several doctors. A record that follows the patient prevents duplicates and omissions.
  • Patients pay. With about half of current health spending out of pocket[5], every repeated test and every avoidable admission is paid by a family.
  • Emergencies need four facts fast. Blood group, allergies, current medicines, long-term conditions.
  • Families share risk. Inherited conditions need linked family records, used with consent and counselling.

Sources

  1. Office of the Registrar General of India. Sample Registration System, Causes of Death 2021 to 2023, as reported by Business Standard, 5 September 2025. business-standard.com
  2. ICMR-INDIAB study group. Metabolic non-communicable disease health report of India: the ICMR-INDIAB national cross-sectional study. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, 2023. Figures as reported by M3 India. m3india.in
  3. Minister of State for Health in Parliament, citing ICMR National Cancer Registry Programme estimates, August 2025 (IANS). ianslive.in
  4. PTI via The Week. 1.72 lakh people died in 4.80 lakh road accidents in 2023: Road Ministry report, 28 August 2025. theweek.in
  5. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. National Health Accounts Estimates for India 2022-23, as reported by The Hindu, 28 May 2026. staywire.thottingal.in
  6. Union Health Minister, written reply in the Rajya Sabha, 2 December 2025, as reported by Deccan Herald. deccanherald.com
  7. National Health Authority. ABDM Insights public dashboard, figures last updated 5 November 2026, 8:33 PM. dashboard.abdm.gov.in
  8. Fierce Healthcare. In India, patient visits last just 2 minutes (report on the BMJ Open study), 2017. fiercehealthcare.com
  9. World Bank, World Development Indicators: life expectancy at birth, total, 2024 (series SP.DYN.LE00.IN via FRED). fred.stlouisfed.org
  10. Office of the Registrar General of India. SRS Statistical Report 2023, as reported by Millennium Post, September 2025. millenniumpost.in
  11. UNICEF India. UN report highlights great strides for India in under-five child survival (UN IGME estimates for 2023), 4 April 2025. unicef.org
  12. International Agency for Research on Cancer. GLOBOCAN 2022: India fact sheet. gco.iarc.who.int
  13. The Wire. Over 14 lakh new cancer cases and 9 lakh deaths in India in 2022: WHO (GLOBOCAN 2022). thewire.in
  14. WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative country-level survival estimates, Nature Medicine, 2026, as reported by MedBound Times. medboundtimes.com
  15. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Road Accidents in India 2023 (released August 2025). morth.nic.in
  16. PTI via The Week. Govt notifies cashless treatment scheme for road accident victims nationwide, 6 May 2025. theweek.in
  17. Public Health Foundation of India researchers, study in The BMJ, 2018, as reported by Pallium India. palliumindia.org
  18. National Statistical Office. Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India: Health, NSS 75th round (July 2017 to June 2018), Report 586. mospi.gov.in
  19. Office of the Registrar General of India. SRS Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality 2022 to 2024, as reported by Asianet Newsable. newsable.asianetnews.com
  20. Union Health Minister at the Indian Red Cross Society thalassaemia centre, PTI via The Tribune, August 2020. tribuneindia.com