Infections out, heart disease in: India's health story has new villains
The fight against infections is slowly being won. But a new battle against diabetes, heart disease, and chronic illness has a long road ahead.
For decades, infectious diseases like cholera and typhoid were the villains in India’s health story. But according to data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, they are slowly losing ground. Infections reported per lakh people fell from 2,547 in 2017–18 to 2,302 in 2025.
That is good news. But here is the catch. New ones are taking their place, and they are far more stubborn. According to the latest pan-India survey by the National Statistics Office, diabetes, thyroid disorders, heart disease, and high blood pressure are rising at an alarming rate.
In 2017–18, endocrine and metabolic conditions stood at 1,189 cases per one lakh people. By 2025, that number had jumped to 3,681, nearly three times higher. And heart disease and hypertension cases went from 1,333 to 3,891 per one lakh people in the same period. Respiratory and musculoskeletal problems have also risen sharply.
Who’s falling sick?
It is not just the type of illness that has changed. The number of people reporting illness has gone up, too. In rural areas, only 5.5 per cent of people reported being sick in 1995–96. By 2025, that number had risen to 12.2 per cent. In cities, it went from 5.4 per cent to 14.9 per cent.
Across every survey and every year, women report more illnesses than men. In rural India in 2025, 13.4 per cent of women reported health issues compared to 11.1 per cent of men. In cities, the gap was even wider: 16.6 per cent for women versus 13.4 per cent for men.
Hospitalisations
About 2.9 per cent of Indians were hospitalised at least once in 2025. The rate is slightly higher in cities (3.2 per cent) than in villages (2.7 per cent). Children under the age of four and elderly people above 60 were hospitalised the most. Senior citizens, particularly men, had hospitalisation rates as high as 9.3 per cent. That’s nearly one in ten people. Fevers and infections drove childhood admissions. Heart disease and diabetes dominate middle-aged people and older.
Alongside increased hospitalisations, there has been an increasing reliance on government facilities. In rural India, only 19 per cent of cases of illness were treated in government facilities in 1995-96. By 2025, that share had risen to 35 per cent. Urban numbers, however, have stayed flat, moving from 20 per cent to just 25 per cent over 30 years.
India has seen a rapid expansion in health coverage over the past decade. In 2017–18, only 14.1 per cent of rural Indians had any health insurance or government scheme coverage. By 2025, that number had jumped to 47.4 per cent. In cities, coverage rose from 19.1 to 44.3 per cent.