The National Statistical Office (NSO) released its first ever district level report on India’s unincorporated non-agricultural sector on 10 September 2026, titled Unincorporated Sector at the District Level: Insights from ASUSE 2025. The report gives estimates for 757 districts on the number of establishments, workers, earnings and productivity. It shows that economic activity is sharply concentrated, with the top 10 districts holding about one tenth and the top 50 districts holding nearly one third of all establishments, jobs and value added.
What Is ASUSE and What Does This First District Report Cover?
The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) is the main national survey that tracks India’s unincorporated non-agricultural economy. An unincorporated enterprise is a business that is not registered as a company under the Companies Act, 2013 or as a Limited Liability Partnership. It includes proprietary concerns, partnerships, self help groups, cooperatives, societies and trusts. ASUSE covers three broad groups, which are manufacturing, trade and other services. It does not cover construction, and it leaves out factories covered under the Annual Survey of Industries and government units.
ASUSE is conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), which works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). NSO was formed in 2019 by merging the Central Statistical Office and the National Sample Survey Office, and it is based in New Delhi. The survey period for ASUSE 2025 was January 2025 to December 2025. The national results for that round showed 7.92 crore establishments employing 12.81 crore workers, with a Gross Value Added (GVA) of about ₹19.93 lakh crore at current prices.
The new district report draws on the same ASUSE 2025 data but presents it at a much finer level. This is the first time NSO has released district estimates from a large nationwide enterprise survey. It gives figures for 757 out of 770 districts that were in the sampling frame when the sample was selected. The report also includes figures for million plus cities within their districts, based on the 2011 Census population. Earlier, MoSPI had released a similar profile for 46 million plus cities, and this district report takes that work a step further.
The report presents a common set of indicators for each district so that scale, jobs and performance can be compared in a uniform way.
| Area Covered | Indicators Given at District Level |
|---|---|
| Scale and structure | Number of establishments, ownership type, hired worker and own account split |
| Jobs and pay | Number of workers, women participation, emoluments per hired worker |
| Formal link | Registration status of establishments |
| Performance | GVA per establishment and GVA per worker for market establishments |
GVA means the value a producer adds after subtracting the cost of inputs like raw material and electricity from the total output. GVA per worker is therefore a simple measure of labour productivity, while emoluments per hired worker relates more directly to wages paid.
Concentration of Enterprises Across Districts and States
The clearest finding is that informal business activity is not spread evenly. The top 10 districts, ranked by the estimated number of unincorporated establishments, together account for about one tenth of all establishments, workers and GVA in the country. The top 50 districts together account for nearly one third of all three totals. In other words, a small set of districts drives a very large share of shops, small factories, eateries, repair units and service providers outside the corporate sector.
The top 10 districts are spread across only four states, which are Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The top 50 districts are spread across twelve states, which are Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This pattern shows that large population size, strong urban centres and dense trading networks pull unincorporated activity into a few hubs.
The spread in scale is also very wide. Roughly one third of all districts have more than 1 lakh unincorporated establishments each. About 9 percent of districts have fewer than 10,000 establishments each. Only 16 districts have more than 5 lakh establishments each. Among these 16, eight are in West Bengal, three are in Maharashtra, two are in Gujarat, and one each is in Karnataka, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
The report also names the largest contributing district inside each state and union territory. The table below gives selected examples to show how one district often dominates its state total.
| State | Leading District and Its Share of State Total Establishments |
|---|---|
| Gujarat | Surat, 19.43 percent |
| Telangana | Rangareddy, 32.66 percent |
| Maharashtra | Pune, 24.75 percent |
| Tamil Nadu | Chennai, 23.53 percent |
| Uttar Pradesh | Prayagraj, 23.03 percent |
| Karnataka | Bengaluru Urban, 12.83 percent |
| West Bengal | North 24 Parganas, 9.14 percent |
| Bihar | Patna, 8.23 percent |
Such district shares are useful because state averages hide local clusters. Knowing which district holds the firms, jobs and value creation helps direct credit, skilling, market yards and infrastructure to the right place.
Productivity Differences Across Districts
The report does not stop at counting firms. It also compares how much value each district creates per worker. At the all India level, GVA per worker for market establishments in ASUSE 2025 was ₹1,56,539. This national average works as a benchmark to judge whether a district is above or below the typical productivity of small businesses.
In about 331 districts, GVA per worker lay between ₹1 lakh and ₹1.5 lakh. In 280 districts, GVA per worker was higher than the national average. This means a large group of districts creates more value per worker than the country as a whole, which points to better product mix, stronger demand, higher skills or better access to power, credit and markets. Productivity also differs by activity. At the national level in ASUSE 2025, trade recorded the highest GVA per worker and per establishment, followed by other services and then manufacturing. So districts with a larger share of trading hubs or high value services tend to show higher GVA per worker than districts dominated by tiny own account units.
These gaps matter for local planning. A district with many establishments but low GVA per worker may need support for technology upgrade, design, branding and market linkage. A district with high GVA per worker may offer lessons on what enables small firms to earn more from the same workforce.
Women Entrepreneurs and Women Workers in Focus
The district lens brings out strong regional patterns in women led business. 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 percent of establishments in every district of the state. This reflects long standing traditions of women run trade, handloom, food processing and small retail in the Northeast and in parts of Telangana.
A similar map emerges for jobs. The top 10 districts with the highest share of female workers are located in Telangana, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Across the country, women make up about 29 percent of the total workforce in the unincorporated non-agricultural sector in ASUSE 2025. At the district level, women form at least one third of the workforce in 237 districts. In 25 districts, women form more than half of the workforce. Nationally, nearly 22 percent of all female workers in this sector are engaged in the manufacture of wearing apparel, and more than 60 percent of manufacturing establishments are headed by female proprietors.
These district figures help separate two different ideas. Female ownership shows who runs the unit, while female workforce share shows who gets the jobs. In nearly 72 percent of female led establishments that hire workers, at least one hired worker is a woman. This link suggests that supporting women entrepreneurs can directly widen paid work for other women in the same district.
How the Survey Was Done and What to Keep in Mind
ASUSE uses an area frame and a multi stage stratified sampling design. In rural areas, the first stage units are census villages, except in rural Kerala where panchayat wards are used. In urban areas, the first stage units are Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks. Survey teams first list all establishments in the selected villages and blocks, and then select establishments for detailed interviews. This listing step is important because it captures tiny and home based units that may not appear in any register. Data are collected largely through oral enquiry for a monthly reference period using tablets and Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). For ASUSE 2025, data were collected from more than 6.7 lakh establishments.
Starting with ASUSE 2025, the design was changed to treat each district as a basic stratum and to select samples every quarter. This change made annual district estimates possible and also allowed quarterly national estimates for major indicators. Because of this redesign, the sample size was raised sharply from earlier rounds.
Readers should use the district numbers with care. The estimates are based on sample data, not a full census of firms. District boundaries follow the sampling frame at the time of selection, so later splits, mergers or renaming of districts may not match the present map. The report gives Relative Standard Errors (RSEs) to show sampling reliability, and it notes that RSEs are high in some cases. Small gaps between two districts should therefore not be read as a firm ranking without checking local industry mix, population size and reliability. Separate district estimates are not given for Delhi, because its districts were merged into a single stratum for sampling, and not separately for Lakshadweep and Chandigarh, where the district and union territory totals are the same.
Why District Level Data Matters for Policy
India’s unincorporated sector provides livelihoods to crores of people and feeds inputs and services to the organised sector. Yet state and national totals often hide where firms actually operate. A state may look strong because of one or two large cities, while other districts in the same state remain thin in firms, jobs and value creation. District data corrects this blind spot.
The new estimates connect directly with two other data efforts. One is the national ASUSE factsheet, which showed a 7.97 percent rise in establishments, a 6.18 percent rise in workers and a 10.87 percent rise in GVA in current prices between ASUSE 2023-24 and ASUSE 2025, along with a sharp rise in internet use from 26.7 percent to 39.4 percent of establishments. The other is the uniform guideline for District Domestic Product (DDP) released by MoSPI in June 2026 with base year 2022-23, which aims to measure the total value of all goods and services produced in a district. ASUSE covers only the unincorporated non-agricultural part, while DDP covers agriculture, industry and services together. When used together with employment data, the two sources give a fuller picture of a district economy rather than a single number.
For local administration, the practical use is clear. Districts with high concentration can be prioritised for common facility centres, warehousing, retail clusters and formal credit linkage, since a small improvement there touches many workers. Districts with low establishment counts, low registration or low GVA per worker can be prioritised for basic infrastructure, digital access and entrepreneurship support. Districts with strong women participation can be studied to see which market, social and credit conditions support that outcome, so that those conditions can be extended elsewhere.
Key Takeaways
- The report Unincorporated Sector at the District Level: Insights from ASUSE 2025 was released on 10 September 2026 and gives first ever district estimates for 757 districts.
- The top 10 districts account for about one tenth of establishments, workers and GVA and are spread across Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
- The top 50 districts account for nearly one third of establishments, workers and GVA and are spread across 12 states.
- Only 16 districts have more than 5 lakh unincorporated establishments each, with eight of them located in West Bengal.
- The all India GVA per worker in ASUSE 2025 was ₹1,56,539, and 280 districts recorded a higher value than this average.
- Women form at least one third of the unincorporated workforce in 237 districts and more than half of the workforce in 25 districts.
