The Basics
Assam at a Glance
Assam lies in the north-east, wrapped around the Brahmaputra. It is the largest state of the region by population and its gateway to the rest of India.
- Dispur Capital — within Guwahati, the largest city & commercial hub
- 1950 A state of the Indian Union (a province before independence)
- 78,438 km² Area — India's 16th-largest state
- 35 districts Grouped into 5 divisions — the count has changed often (the map shows 33)
- Assamese State language; Bodo is associate official, Bengali official in the Barak Valley
- 126 seats Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) — 14 Lok Sabha seats
- Borders Seven sister states, plus Bhutan & Bangladesh
- Two valleys The Brahmaputra & Barak valleys, split by the Karbi Anglong & Dima Hasao hills
- Bodoland The autonomous Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in the north-west
- State symbols Animal: one-horned rhino · Bird: white-winged wood duck · Flower: foxtail orchid (kopou)
People
Population & Society
Census 2011 is the last full count. Assam is among India's least-urbanised states, with a rich mix of communities living along the Brahmaputra. Figures below are Census 2011 unless marked.
- 3.12 cr Population, 2011 (31,205,576) — India's 14th most populous state
- 17.1% Decadal growth, 2001–2011
- 398 /km² Population density, 2011
- 958 Sex ratio — females per 1,000 males, 2011 (above the national average)
- 72.2% Literacy rate, 2011
- 14.1% Urban — one of India's least-urbanised states
- Faiths A Hindu majority (~61%) with a large Muslim minority (~34%) and Christians (~4%) — Census 2011
- A mosaic Assamese & Bodo (the largest tribe), the Adivasi "tea tribes," and Bengali communities in the Barak Valley
- Guwahati The largest city and the gateway metropolis of all North-East India
Economy
Tea, Oil & the Brahmaputra
Assam is rich in resources — it grows most of India's tea and pumped the country's first oil — yet incomes remain among the lowest in India, and farming still supports most people.
- ₹7.4 L cr GSDP 2025-26 (budget estimate, current prices); ₹6.4 L cr in 2024-25 (RE)
- ~15% Nominal GSDP growth, 2025-26 over 2024-25
- ₹1.59 lakh Per-capita GSDP, 2023-24 — below the national average
- ~25% Outstanding liabilities as % of GSDP (2025-26)
What the economy is made of — share of the state economy (2023-24)
- ~46% Services
- ~35% Agriculture & allied — an unusually high share for an Indian state
- ~19% Industry — led by tea, oil refining & gas
Tea, oil & minerals
- Tea More than half of India's tea; the Brahmaputra valley is the world's largest tea-growing region
- Oil & gas Digboi drilled Asia's first oil well (1889–90) and ran its first refinery (1901)
- Refineries Digboi, Guwahati (India's first public-sector refinery, 1962), Numaligarh & Bongaigaon
- Coal & limestone The Makum coalfield (Tinsukia) and limestone in the hill districts
- Resource-rich, income-poor: despite tea, oil and gas, Assam's per-capita income is among the lowest of any Indian state.
- Figures here are the latest Assam Budget estimates (via PRS) and MoSPI. The India GDP page compares all states at FY2024-25.
Agriculture
The Tea Garden of India
Assam is India's tea garden, and a land of rice, silk and citrus. The Brahmaputra's floods both feed and threaten its mostly smallholder farms.
- Tea India's largest producer — over half the national crop; Assam tea carries a GI (2008)
- Rice The staple food crop, grown across the valley; aromatic Joha rice has a GI
- Muga silk The golden silk found almost only in Assam — a GI; with Eri & Pat, woven at Sualkuchi
- Kaji Nemu The Assam lemon — GI-tagged (2019) and the state fruit
- Mustard The leading oilseed of the state
- Areca & betel Tamul-paan — central to Assamese hospitality
- Jute & fruit A notable jute producer; pineapple & banana lead the horticulture
- Floods Mostly small, rain-fed farms — hit hard by the Brahmaputra's annual floods
Administrative
The Districts of Assam
Assam's district map keeps changing — the official count is 35 (after several were split and re-created), in 5 divisions. The interactive map shows 33, from the open dataset. Select a district to highlight it on the map above.
The map and this list share the same data. Clicking a district highlights it on the interactive map in the hero; soon each will open its own page.
What Makes Assam Unique
Strengths, Industry & Heritage
Assam is the gateway to North-East India — its tea, oil and silk feed the country, and it holds three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, from Kaziranga's rhinos to the Ahom royal mounds.
Industry & trade
- Guwahati The commercial capital and "Gateway to the North-East"
- Tea The world's largest tea-growing region
- Oil India's oldest oil industry, with four refineries
- Silk Sualkuchi weaves Muga, Eri & Pat; golden Muga is found almost only here
- Agarwood Hojai is a major agar (oud) processing & trading hub
Heritage, nature & wildlife
- Kaziranga A UNESCO site (1985) with about two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos (~2,600)
- Manas A UNESCO site (1985) and tiger reserve on the Bhutan border
- Charaideo Moidams The Ahom royal burial mounds — a UNESCO site since 2024, the "Pyramids of Assam"
- Majuli One of the world's largest river islands and the heart of satra culture
- Pobitora & more Pobitora's dense rhino herds, plus Orang, Nameri & Dibru-Saikhowa parks
- One-horned rhino Assam's emblem — and a global conservation success story
Culture & Traditions
Bihu, Sattriya & the Satras
Assam's culture flows from the Brahmaputra and the satras — the lilt of Bihu, the grace of Sattriya, the red-and-white gamosa, and a gentle, rice-based cuisine.
- Bihu The signature festival in three seasons; spring Rongali Bihu is the Assamese New Year. In 2023, 11,298 dancers set a Guinness record for the largest Bihu dance
- Sattriya One of India's classical dances — born in the Vaishnavite satras and shaped by Srimanta Sankardev
- Gamosa The red-and-white Assamese cloth, an emblem of identity — GI-tagged in 2022
- Satra culture The Vaishnavite monasteries of Majuli, with their Bhaona plays and GI-tagged mask-making
- Assamese food Lightly spiced and rice-based — khar, masor tenga (sour fish), pitha & tamul-paan
- Folk dances Jhumur of the tea gardens and Bagurumba of the Bodos
Places to Visit
Wildlife, Rivers & Temples
From the rhinos of Kaziranga to the ghats of Kamakhya and the satras of Majuli, Assam rewards the traveller who follows the Brahmaputra.
- Kaziranga The famous one-horned rhino park — a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Kamakhya The hilltop Shakti Peetha at Guwahati and its Ambubachi Mela
- Majuli The great Brahmaputra river island and its Vaishnavite satras
- Sivasagar The Ahom capital — Rang Ghar (one of Asia's oldest amphitheatres), Talatal Ghar & the Sivadol temples
- Charaideo The Ahom royal moidams (mounds) — a UNESCO site since 2024
- Manas The tiger reserve on the Bhutan border — a UNESCO site
- Hajo & Umananda Hajo's shared Hindu–Buddhist–Muslim shrines, and the little Umananda island temple in the Brahmaputra
- Tea country Heritage tea bungalows and gardens around Jorhat, Assam's tea capital
- Haflong Assam's hill station, in the Dima Hasao hills
Bridges, Rail & Air
Crossing the Brahmaputra
Tying together a state split by a vast river — and the rest of the North-East — has meant building some of India's landmark bridges.
- Bhupen Hazarika Setu At ~9.15 km, India's longest bridge when it opened in 2017 (over the Lohit, to Arunachal)
- Bogibeel India's longest rail-and-road bridge (~4.9 km), near Dibrugarh, opened in 2018
- Saraighat The first bridge across the Brahmaputra (1962), at Guwahati — named after the 1671 battle
- LGBI Airport Guwahati's airport is the busiest in the North-East; Dibrugarh, Jorhat & Silchar also fly
- Rail gateway The Northeast Frontier Railway is headquartered at Maligaon, Guwahati
- Waterway The Brahmaputra is National Waterway 2, from Sadiya to Dhubri
- AIIMS Guwahati The North-East's first AIIMS, opened in 2023
People & Heritage
A Land of Icons
Assam has given India a Vaishnavite reformer, a warrior who turned back the Mughals, and the Bard of the Brahmaputra.
- Srimanta Sankardev The 15th–16th-century saint-reformer who created Sattriya, Borgeet and the satra tradition
- Lachit Borphukan The Ahom general who defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Saraighat (1671)
- Bhupen Hazarika The "Bard of the Brahmaputra," singer-composer and Bharat Ratna (2019)
- Gopinath Bordoloi Assam's first Chief Minister and a Bharat Ratna (1999)
- Jyoti Prasad Agarwala The "Rupkonwar" who made the first Assamese film, Joymoti (1935)
- Indira Goswami The Jnanpith-winning writer (2000), also a peace facilitator
- Bishnu Prasad Rabha "Kalaguru" — the all-round cultural icon of Assam
- Hima Das The sprinter from Dhing — India's "Dhing Express" on the track
Through the Ages
A Short History of Assam
From the ancient Kamarupa kingdom to six centuries of Ahom rule and a modern state, a few of the milestones that shaped Assam.
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 4th–12th c. CE | The Kamarupa kingdom rules the Brahmaputra valley from Pragjyotishpura (near Guwahati) |
| 1228 | Sukaphaa founds the Ahom kingdom, which would rule Assam for about 600 years |
| 1671 | Lachit Borphukan's Ahoms defeat the Mughals at the Battle of Saraighat on the Brahmaputra |
| 1826 | The Treaty of Yandabo brings Assam under British rule |
| 1837–1839 | British commercial tea begins; the Assam Company is founded (1839) |
| 1889–1901 | Digboi — Asia's first oil well, then its first refinery (1901) |
| 1947–1950 | India wins independence; Assam becomes a state of the Union |
| 1963–1987 | Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Arunachal Pradesh are carved out of greater Assam |
| 2024 | The Charaideo Moidams become a UNESCO World Heritage Site |