Documentation for the India Village-Level Geospatial Socio-Economic Data Set: 1991, 2001

The India Village-Level Geospatial data set provides over 200 socio-economic variables at the finest level of spatial disaggregation in India; over 600,000 administrative units at village/town level (or sub-district/taluka level when village/town data are not available). In general, official spatial data on the administrative boundaries of India are made accessible only at district or sub-district level (note the broad administrative hierarchy in India: state>district>sub-district>village/town). This data set provides geospatial boundaries at a higher resolution by digitizing village/town level boundaries from the official cadastral maps published by the Survey of India for 2001. This data set utilizes tabular data for 1991 and 2001 from Primary Census Abstract (PCA) and Village Directory (VD) data series of the Indian census. PCA corresponds to demographic information, while VD primarily includes information on village infrastructure, facilities, and primary occupation, as well as land use information, among others. The data are distributed as GIS shapefiles for each Indian state.