Highlights from the 5th Economic Census

1. Of all the enterprises in the country, 61% exist in the rural areas.
   
2. Rural India is the hub of small enterprises with about 20.9% of all enterprises without premises dotting the rural landscape. Urban India accounts for 15.5% of such enterprises.
   
3. Over the period 1998-2005, average annual growth rate of employment of 2.49% has lagged behind the average annual growth rate of enterprises of 4.8%.
   
4. The whole of India has a total of 42,124,000 enterprises. They had on average employed only about 2.35 workers.
   
5. India’s working population is pegged at 450 mln. Of this 198 million were employed in manufacturing and services sector while the remaining 252 mln were engaged in agriculture related activities.