India's landlines have nearly doubled since 2020
Change in fixed telephone lines, 2020 to 2024, India against the world and other large markets.
- 1. India now has more working-age people than China
- 2. India's UPI now handles 86% as many payments as Visa
- 3. Indian students now outnumber Chinese students in the US
- 4. India's GitHub developers outnumber China's, Brazil's and Japan's combined
- 5. India's stock market grew 23-fold since 2000
- 6. Indian phone users now average 25 GB of data monthly
- 7. India's metro network quadrupled in a decade
- 8. India now ships over a third of world rice exports
- 9. India went from 1% to 37% of Russia's crude sales
- 10. India's wild tigers have more than doubled since 2006
- 11. Two in three rickshaws sold in India are electric
- 12. Indians now file more patents at home than Germans
- 13. India published more science papers than Germany and Britain combined
- 14. India now holds more foreign reserves than Saudi Arabia
- 15. Open defecation in India fell from 73% to 7%
- 16. India's sun and wind now outproduce Germany's
- 17. India's landlines have nearly doubled since 2020
Fixed phone lines in India in 2024, up from 20.1 m in 2020, the low point after years of decline.
Change in the world's fixed lines over the same years, from 903 m to 833 m. China fell 8%, the US 20%.
India's rise, nearly five times Mexico's +20%, the only other big market here where landlines grew.
the numbers & method
| Change 2020–2024 (%) | |
|---|---|
| India | 96 |
| Mexico | 20 |
| Germany | 0 |
| World | -8 |
| China | -8 |
| United States | -20 |
| Brazil | -26 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate · Interpretation
World Bank WDI indicator IT.MLT.MAIN (fixed telephone subscriptions; source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database), read from the World Bank API. Millions, 2020 → 2024: India 20.05 → 39.24 (2015: 25.52; 2019: 21.00; 2021: 23.77; 2022: 27.45; 2023: 30.93); World 903 → 833 (ITU estimate, rounded; 2025: 815); China 181.91 → 166.51; United States 101.80 → 81.55; Brazil 30.65 → 22.55; Germany 38.38 → 38.40; Mexico 24.50 → 29.52. Percent changes are progrss calculations: India +95.7%, World −7.8%, China −8.5%, US −19.9%, Brazil −26.4%, Germany +0.05%, Mexico +20.49%. Japan (no 2024 value) and Indonesia (a 2024 drop from 9.16 m to 4.65 m that looks like a series break) are left out. World totals are ITU estimates. Other large markets 2020–2024: Pakistan and Viet Nam fell; Russia fell to 2023 (no 2024 value). The rise is likely fixed voice lines bundled with fibre home broadband (Interpretation, not shown by this data).
what connects to this
one plate, every morning
The new world, explained in one chart, in your inbox at 7:00, your time. Free.