TL;DR: The NSO’s National Household Travel Survey, conducted from July 2025 to June 2026, finds that 57.6% of workers and 66.4% of students make regular trips of at least 1 km. Four patterns stand out: women are 20 percentage points less likely than men to travel to work; rural students aged 15–29 are more likely than their urban peers to travel at least 1 km to study (79.1% vs 73.3%); urban students and workers spend about 71% more time per month commuting than their rural counterparts, and private two-wheelers and cars account for 58% of urban commutes, compared with 14.2% by bus and rail.

Context

India’s transport needs are often understood through vehicle registrations, Census data on journeys to work, and studies of individual cities. These sources offer useful insights, but they do not provide a comprehensive picture of how people travel in their everyday lives: who travels, how far they go, when they leave, and what modes of transport they use.

The National Statistics Office (NSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has attempted to address part of this gap through the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted alongside the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).

In this story, we look at insights into how people move, the modes of transport they use, trip purposes, travel frequency, and other related factors.

Who Compiles This Data?

The National Statistics Office (NSO), under the MoSPI, conducted the NHTS, and the findings are released under the Household Travel in India 2025-26. The survey covered 24,651 first-stage sampling units across rural and urban India, comprising 14,274 rural villages and 10,377 urban frame survey blocks. From these units, approximately 4.92 lakh households were surveyed, including 2,84,769 rural and 2,07,254 urban households.

Two definitions are important for interpreting the findings. First, the survey defines travel as any movement covering at least one kilometre. Shorter movements are excluded, as is travel undertaken as part of a person’s occupation, such as a taxi driver’s trips while on duty or a vendor’s rounds. Activities such as jogging, morning walks and joyrides are also outside the survey’s scope.

Second, the primary mode of transport refers to the mode used to cover the longest distance during a trip. For instance, someone who walks to a bus stop and then travels 10 kilometres by bus is classified as a bus user. This distinction matters when interpreting the results, as the survey identifies the principal mode used for a journey, rather than accounting equally for every mode involved in it.

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data on Household Travel in India?

Clean, structured and ready-to-use datasets on India’s Household travel can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

Four in Ten Women Travel to Work, Compared with Six in Ten Men

Among workers aged 15 and above, 61.9% of men made a regular trip of at least one kilometre to their workplace, compared with 41.9% of women. The 20-percentage-point gap was wider in rural India, at 21.9 percentage points, where 59.6% of men and 37.7% of women made such trips. In urban areas, the corresponding figures were 66.6% and 52.9%, narrowing the gap to 13.7 percentage points.

The rural-urban difference is particularly notable for women. Urban women were 15.2 percentage points more likely than rural women to make a regular trip of at least one kilometre to work. In cities, more than half of women workers reported such journeys. One possible consideration for such difference is the nature and location of work: women working on family farms or from home may not make a separate journey to a workplace. However, the survey figures alone cannot establish how much this explains the rural-urban gap.

Differences also emerge in commuting expenditure and transport choices. Women travelling to a fixed workplace spent an average of ₹533 per month, compared with ₹835 for men, a difference of about 36%. In rural areas, average monthly expenditure stood at ₹307 for women and ₹674 for men, while in urban areas, it stood at ₹884 for women and ₹1076 for men.

Further, in urban India, 21.7% of women workers used a bus as their primary mode of transport, while two-wheelers were the primary mode for 57% of men.

In the 15-29 Age Group, Rural Students Travel More Than Urban Ones

Overall, for persons aged 6 years and above, urban students are slightly more likely to make a regular 1 km+ trip to an educational institution (68.1%) than rural students (65.6%). But for older students, the pattern flips. Among those aged 15-29, 79.1% of rural students travel 1 km or more, against 73.3% of urban students.

The age jump is steep in villages. Only 59% of rural students aged 6-14 make such a trip, compared with 79.1% of the older group (15-29 years), a rise of 20 points. In cities the jump is about nine points (64.4% to 73.3%). The likely reason is distance, as primary schools in villages are often within walking distance, while colleges and higher secondary schools are further away.

The choice of transport adds another dimension to the rural-urban comparison. Walking and cycling together account for 59.4% of rural student trips, compared with 38.7% of urban student trips, for ages over 6 and above. Cycling alone accounts for 18.9% of rural student trips, more than twice the urban share of 9.1%. The difference is also visible across age groups: 21.4% of students aged 15–29 use a bicycle as their primary mode of transport, compared with 11.9% of those aged 6–14.

People in Cities Spend 71% More on Commuting, Despite Similar Travel Times

Monthly commute costs are considerably higher in urban areas than in rural India, for both students and workers. Students spend an average of ₹361 per month on travel in rural areas, compared with ₹617 in urban areas. Among workers, the corresponding figures are ₹612 and ₹1,044. In both groups, the average urban expenditure is about 71% higher than the rural figure.

The difference in spending is not matched by a comparable difference in travel time. Students take an average of 23 minutes to reach their destination in rural areas and 22 minutes in urban areas. For workers, the average is 23 minutes in rural areas and 27 minutes in cities. The survey also finds that 87.6% of students and 83.4% of workers reach their destinations within 30 minutes.

Urban households, therefore, spend substantially more on regular travel, even though average journey times are broadly similar. The expenditure figures cover travel-related costs borne by households, such as fares and fuel, rather than the full cost of owning and operating a vehicle, including its purchase, maintenance and road tax.

In Cities, Nearly Six in Ten Workers Commute Using Private Motor Vehicles

Among workers who travelled to their workplace, two-wheelers were the most commonly used primary mode of transport, accounting for 42.6% of commutes nationally. In urban areas, the share rose to 52.3%. Cars accounted for another 5.7% of urban commutes, taking the combined share of private motor vehicles to 58%.

Public transport accounted for a considerably smaller share of urban commutes. Buses made up 9.2%, while trains, metro, monorail and trams together accounted for 5%. Combined, these modes represented 14.2% of urban workers’ commutes. Auto-rickshaws accounted for 8.8%, while 13.5% of urban workers walked to work.

Rural commuting patterns look different. Walking and cycling together accounted for half of all rural commutes (50%), while two-wheelers accounted for 37.1%. Buses carried 5.3% of rural commuters, and trains accounted for just 0.4%.

These differences have implications for how transport systems serve people travelling to work. The high share of private motor vehicles in cities raises questions about road congestion and the availability of alternatives for daily commuters. The relatively small share of public transport also warrants attention, particularly for people who cannot afford or do not have access to private vehicles. Women and lower-income workers may face different constraints in accessing these options, although the figures presented here do not establish how transport choices vary by income or vehicle ownership. The rural figures, meanwhile, underline the importance of walking and cycling in everyday mobility.

Why Does It Matter?

The findings show how mobility in India differs by gender, age, location and household spending. Women are less likely to travel to work, rural students in the older age group are more likely to travel at least a kilometre to study, and urban households spend more on commuting despite similar travel times. Cities also rely heavily on private vehicles, with public transport accounting for a small share of work trips.

For policymakers, the National Household Travel Survey provides a national baseline to examine these patterns and offers scope to identify regional differences and inform transport planning.

Key Numbers

• Workers travelling to work: 57.6% overall; men 61.9%, women 41.9%

• Monthly commuting cost for people travelling to work: Men Rs. 835, Women Rs. 533

• Students aged 15-29 travelling 1 km+: Rural 79.1%, urban 73.3%

• Rural students who walk or cycle: 59.4% (urban 38.7%)

• Monthly commute cost: Students Rs. 361 (rural) vs Rs. 617 (urban); workers Rs. 612 vs Rs. 1,044

• Time to reach workplace: 23 minutes (rural), 27 minutes (urban)

• Urban commute by two-wheeler or car: 58.0%; by bus or train/metro/tram: 14.2%