India's electorate crosses 99 crore, women voters exceed 48 crore mark

NEW DELHI: India’s electorate has grown by 2.2% to over 99 crore from 96.9 crore since the last special summary revision of electoral rolls in 2024. The 99 crore figure, as per final rolls published so far for 33 states and UTs with January 1, 2025 as the reference date, will rise further as the data for Nagaland, Sikkim and the Union territory of Chandigarh is based on the draft rolls.
While the final roll for Nagaland and Sikkim will be published on Tuesday, that for Chandigarh is due to be published on January 10.
As per the latest data of voters from across 36 states and UTs exclusively accessed by TOI, as many as 50.7 crore of the over 99 crore electors are male, while 48.3 crore are women and 48,870 belong to the third gender.
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar, while sharing the data from special summary revision of electoral rolls with January 1, 2025 as the reference date, at a press conference here to announce Delhi assembly polls, said the country’s electorate has already crossed the 99 crore-mark and is nearing the record figure of 1 billion. He added that the country's women voters have, for the first time in the history of electoral democracy, grown to beyond 48 crore.
A comparison with the data from nationwide special summary revision of rolls with January 1, 2024 as the reference date — officially released by the EC on February 9, 2024 — shows a 2.2% increase in Indian electorate, 1.9% in male electorate and a significantly higher 2.5% rise in total number of women electors over the past one year.
The electors to population ratio has also improved to 67.8 in January 2025 as compared to 66.8 a year ago, as has the gender ratio (female electors per 1000 male electors) to 954 from 948 in 2024.
Statewise, the updated electoral rolls for 2025 show Uttar Pradesh in the lead with a total 15.3 crore voters, of which 8.2 crore are male and 7.2 crore, female. Maharashtra is next with a total 9.8 crore voters, followed by Bihar with 7.8 crore voters, West Bengal with 7.6 crore and Tamil Nadu with 6.3 crore.
In terms of electors to population ratio, Lakshadweep leads at 82.2, followed by Kerala at 77.1 and West Bengal at 75.1.
The best performing state as regards the gender ratio is Puducherry (1136 female voters per 1000 male voters), followed by Manipur (1070) and Kerala (1069). Only NCT of Delhi, UP and Haryana have a gender ratio of less than 900, at 859, 876 and 890 respectively.