The Basics
Tamil Nadu at a Glance
India's southernmost mainland state, on the Bay of Bengal — an ancient Tamil land of great temples and a modern powerhouse of industry, with one of the country's longest coastlines.
- Chennai Capital and largest city — a major industrial, cultural and IT hub
- 1956, then 1969 Madras State reorganised on 1 Nov 1956; renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 Jan 1969
- 130,058 km² Area — India's 11th-largest state
- 38 districts Currently — after Mayiladuthurai was carved out in 2020
- Tamil Official language — a classical language and one of the world's oldest living tongues
- 234 seats Legislative Assembly (unicameral); 39 Lok Sabha & 18 Rajya Sabha seats
- ~1,076 km coast One of India's longest coastlines, on the Bay of Bengal
- The Cauvery The lifeline river; with the Vaigai, Thamirabarani & Palar
- Two Ghats The only state where the Western & Eastern Ghats meet — at the Nilgiris
- Doddabetta At 2,637 m, the highest peak in the Nilgiris
- State symbols Animal: Nilgiri tahr · Bird: emerald dove · Tree: palmyra palm · Flower: glory lily
People
Population & Society
India's most urbanised large state, with strong social indicators — a high sex ratio, good literacy and a fertility rate well below replacement. Census 2011 is the last full count, so current totals are projections.
- 7.21 cr Population, 2011 (72,147,030) — India's 7th most populous
- 15.6% Decadal growth, 2001–2011 — below the national average
- 555 /km² Population density, 2011
- 996 Sex ratio — females per 1,000 males, 2011 — among the highest of the large states
- 80.1% Literacy rate, 2011 — above the national average
- 48.4% Urbanisation, 2011 — the most urbanised of India's large states
- ~1.8 TFR Fertility rate (NFHS-5) — well below replacement, among India's lowest
- 4 cities Million-plus cities — Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai & Tiruchirappalli
- Faith & caste Hindu ~88%, Christian ~6%, Muslim ~6% (2011); a high Scheduled Caste share (~20%)
Economy
The Factory of the South — a ₹35-Lakh-Crore Economy
India's second-largest state economy, and its most industrialised — with the most factories of any state, a vast auto and electronics base, and incomes well above the national average.
- ₹35.7 L cr GSDP 2025-26 (budget estimate, current prices) — India's 2nd-largest state economy
- ~15% Nominal GSDP growth, 2025-26 (budget estimate) — among the fastest of the big states
- ~1.7× average Per-capita income — well above the national average
- ~26% Outstanding debt as % of GSDP (state-budget basis)
What the economy is made of — share of GSVA (2023-24)
- ~54% Services — IT, trade, finance, transport & government
- ~33% Industry — among the highest manufacturing shares of any state
- ~13% Agriculture & allied
The industrial powerhouse
- Most factories The largest number of factories and factory workers of any Indian state (ASI)
- Detroit of India A top auto hub — Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Renault-Nissan, TVS & Ashok Leyland around Chennai
- #1 electronics India's largest electronics exporter — iPhones assembled at Sriperumbudur
- Textiles & leather Tiruppur (India's knitwear capital), Coimbatore ("Manchester of the South") & the Vellore leather belt
- Made in Tamil Nadu: from cars and iPhones to knitwear and leather, the state is India's manufacturing engine — the most industrialised, with the most factories and one of its highest manufacturing shares.
- Figures here are the latest Tamil Nadu Budget estimates (2025-26). The India GDP page compares all states at FY2024-25, so its Tamil Nadu figure is for that earlier year.
Agriculture
The Cauvery Delta & Beyond
A high-yield farming state built on the Cauvery — India's leading flower grower, a major producer of rice, sugarcane, banana and coconut, though long shadowed by water disputes.
- Rice bowl The Cauvery delta around Thanjavur — the "Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu"
- Flowers #1 India's largest flower producer — the jasmine "Madurai Malli" carries a GI tag
- Banana & coconut Among India's largest producers of both — the Pollachi belt is coconut country
- Sugarcane A leading producer, with some of the highest cane yields in India
- Erode turmeric Erode, the "Turmeric City" — a GI-tagged spice; the Nilgiris grow GI-tagged tea
- Namakkal eggs Namakkal is one of India's great poultry & egg hubs; Salem leads in tapioca
- Water-constrained High productivity, but dependent on the north-east monsoon and the Cauvery waters
Administrative
The Districts
Tamil Nadu now has 38 districts — the state has steadily split larger ones, most recently carving out Mayiladuthurai in 2020. The interactive map below uses the 37 districts in the open data — pick one to highlight it above.
The map and this list share the same data. Clicking a district highlights it on the interactive map in the hero.
What Makes Tamil Nadu Unique
Temples, Tamil & Industry
An ancient language and a temple civilisation, paired with India's busiest factory floor and some of its strongest schooling — Tamil Nadu's range is rare.
Heritage & language
- UNESCO sites The Chola Temples (1987), Mahabalipuram (1984), the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (2005) & the Western Ghats (2012)
- Classical Tamil In 2004, Tamil became India's first declared classical language; its Sangam poetry is two millennia old
- Temple land Among the most temples of any state — the home of Dravidian architecture and its towering gopurams
- Chola legacy The Brihadeeswarar temple at Thanjavur — a thousand-year-old masterpiece in granite
Industry & society
- Most factories The largest factory base of any Indian state — the most industrialised
- Schooling The highest higher-education enrolment of any large state; the pioneer of the midday-meal scheme
- Wind power A wind-energy pioneer — the Muppandal farms; now India's 2nd-largest wind capacity
- Well-visited One of India's most-visited states — 2nd by domestic tourist trips
Culture & Traditions
Dance, Music & Pongal
From Bharatanatyam and the Carnatic music season to the harvest joy of Pongal, the silks of Kanchipuram and the bronzes of Swamimalai — a deep and living tradition.
- Bharatanatyam The classical dance of Tamil Nadu — among the oldest in India
- Music season Chennai's Margazhi Carnatic music season — among the world's largest cultural festivals
- Pongal The four-day Tamil harvest festival — with the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu
- Silks & bronzes Kanchipuram silk sarees, Thanjavur paintings & Swamimalai bronze idols — all GI-tagged
- Cuisine Idli, dosa & sambar, the banana-leaf meal, fiery Chettinad fare & filter coffee
- Kollywood The Tamil film industry of Chennai — one of India's largest
Places to Visit
Temples, Hills & the Sea
One of India's most-visited states — a circuit of soaring temple towns, the cool blue Nilgiri hills, the shore monuments of Mahabalipuram and the land's end at Kanyakumari.
- Madurai The Meenakshi Amman temple — a riot of carved, painted gopurams
- Thanjavur The Chola-built Brihadeeswarar temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Mahabalipuram The Pallava shore monuments and rock-cut rathas, by the sea
- Srirangam Near Tiruchirappalli — one of the largest functioning Hindu temple complexes
- Rameswaram The island pilgrim town and its pillared corridors; a Jyotirlinga of Shiva
- Kanyakumari India's southern tip, where three seas meet — and the Vivekananda Rock
- Ooty The "Queen of Hill Stations", reached by the heritage mountain railway; with Kodaikanal
- Chidambaram The temple of Shiva as Nataraja, the cosmic dancer
Modern Tamil Nadu
iPhones, IT & Three Major Ports
Chennai anchors a modern industrial state — India's electronics-export leader, a large IT base, the country's biggest cluster of major ports and a coach factory that's the world's largest.
- #1 electronics India's largest electronics exporter — Foxconn and others assemble Apple iPhones near Chennai
- IT hub Chennai's OMR "IT Corridor" — among India's largest IT-export centres; with Coimbatore
- 3 major ports Chennai, Kamarajar (Ennore) & V.O. Chidambaranar (Thoothukudi) — the most of any state
- Chennai Metro Running since 2015; a big Phase 2 network is under construction
- Rail & coaches Southern Railway is based at Chennai; the Integral Coach Factory is the world's largest coach maker
- New spaceport ISRO's second launch site, at Kulasekarapattinam, is being built for small rockets
Road, Rail & Air
Ports, Airports & a Dense Road Web
A well-connected state — four international airports, three major seaports, a busy rail network and one of India's densest road systems.
- 4 airports International airports at Chennai (among India's busiest), Coimbatore, Trichy & Madurai
- Seaports Three major ports on the Bay of Bengal — more than any other state
- Railways The headquarters of Southern Railway; fast Vande Bharat services from Chennai
- Roads About 7,000 km of national highways within one of India's densest road networks
- Metro Chennai Metro, with a major Phase 2 expansion under way
- Most SEZs The most operational special economic zones of any Indian state
People & Heritage
Icons of Tamil Nadu
A temple-building emperor, a social reformer, a poet, a President and two of science's greatest minds — a few of the figures bound to this land.
- Rajaraja Chola I The Chola emperor who built the Thanjavur temple; his son Rajendra's navy reached South-East Asia
- Periyar E. V. Ramasamy — father of the Dravidian and Self-Respect movements
- Subramania Bharati The great modern Tamil poet and freedom fighter
- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam The "Missile Man" and President of India, born at Rameswaram
- Ramanujan & Raman The mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Erode) and Nobel physicist C. V. Raman (Tiruchirappalli)
- M. S. Subbulakshmi The Carnatic legend of Madurai — the first musician awarded the Bharat Ratna
Through the Ages
A Short History of Tamil Nadu
From the Sangam age and the Chola empire to Madras and a state of its own — a few milestones that shaped Tamil Nadu.
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| c. 300 BCE–300 CE | The Sangam age — classical Tamil literature flowers under the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas |
| 7th–9th c. CE | The Pallavas build Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram |
| 9th–13th c. | The Chola empire rises; its navy reaches South-East Asia |
| 1010 | Rajaraja I completes the Brihadeeswarar temple at Thanjavur |
| 16th–17th c. | The Madurai Nayaks rebuild the great Meenakshi temple |
| 1639 | The British East India Company founds Madras at Fort St George |
| 1858–1947 | The Madras Presidency under British rule |
| 1916–1925 | The Justice Party and Periyar's Self-Respect Movement begin the Dravidian era |
| 1 Nov 1956 | Madras State is reorganised on linguistic lines |
| 1967 | The DMK wins power; C. N. Annadurai becomes Chief Minister |
| 14 Jan 1969 | Madras State is renamed Tamil Nadu |
| 2004 | Tamil is declared India's first classical language |