Key facts about India
5 to 10 facts that help explain what makes the country distinctive.
The world's most populous country
India overtook China as the world's most populous country around 2023, with about 1.45 billion inhabitants in 2024 — more than 4 in every 100 people in the world live in India.
The world's largest democracy
With nearly a billion registered voters, India's general elections are the largest in the world; the 2024 election drew more than 640 million voters over about six weeks.
A nuclear power outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty
After a first test in 1974, India declared itself a nuclear-weapon state in 1998. It has never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), like Pakistan and Israel.
First landing near the Moon's south pole
On August 23, 2023, the Indian space agency's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved the first landing near the Moon's south pole, on a budget often compared to that of a Hollywood film.
The world's largest instant digital payment system
The public UPI (Unified Payments Interface) system processed nearly 20 billion transactions in August 2025 alone, and is estimated to account for about half of all digital transactions made worldwide each month.
22 official languages, no "national language"
The Indian Constitution designates no national language: Hindi and English are co-official at Union level, while 22 other languages are recognised in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and used as official languages in the states where they predominate.