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Bank deposits & credit by population group — rural to metropolitan India

Quick answerIndia’s bank lending is concentrated in big cities. Metropolitan centres hold about 58% of deposits but take about 66% of credit, a credit-deposit ratio near 91%. Semi-Urban and Rural India run deposit surpluses (CD ratios ~58% and ~71%), so savings raised there partly fund metropolitan lending. The RBI’s four population groups — Rural, Semi-Urban, Urban, Metropolitan — come from the Basic Statistical Returns (BSR). Figures are approximate shares, rounded.

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Pick a population group to focus the table, and switch the chart between deposit share, credit share and the credit-deposit ratio.

The chart shows one metric at a time across the four population groups; the table below carries all three metrics together, so the page is fully readable without JavaScript — for accessibility and AI answer engines.

Deposits, credit & CD ratio by population group

Population groupDeposit shareCredit shareCD ratioNote
Rural~9%~8%~71%Agriculture, MSME & rural retail; deposits broadly track credit
Semi-Urban~15%~11%~58%Largest deposit surplus — savings raised here fund lending elsewhere
Urban~18%~15%~67%Mixed retail & business; CD ratio near the all-India average
Metropolitan~58%~66%~91%Big-city corporate & retail credit — the dominant slice of bank lending

Shares are of all-India scheduled commercial bank deposits / credit and are official estimates, rounded and approximate, drawn from the RBI Basic Statistical Returns (BSR) on Banking in India / DBIE; the per-group credit-deposit ratio is indicative. Structural shares move slowly year to year. For exact latest figures see the source linked below.

What it means for bankers

The population-group split is the geography of Indian banking. The standout fact is the metropolitan concentration of credit: big cities hold most large-corporate and high-value retail borrowing, so their credit-deposit ratio runs near 91% while deposits raised in semi-urban and rural India (CD ratios in the 50s-70s) flow toward that lending. That gap is what priority-sector lending and financial-inclusion policy try to narrow, and it sits alongside the split by bank group (public/private/foreign) and the sectoral deployment of credit. A widening deposit-to-credit gap in rural India signals room for the RBI’s push to lift under-banked CD ratios; it all moves with the repo rate and overall credit & deposit growth.

Key terms in this dataPlain-English definitions of the terms behind this dashboard — see the full Indian banking glossary. Repo rate · SLR
More live dataExplore BankPulse’s other live RBI dashboards: Deposits & Credit by Bank Group · Aggregate Deposits & CASA · Credit-Deposit Ratio · Sectoral Deployment of Credit · Bank Branches & ATM Network.

Population-Group Banking FAQ

What are the RBI population groups?
The RBI classifies each bank branch's centre into four population groups by census population: Rural (under 10,000), Semi-Urban (10,000-1 lakh), Urban (1-10 lakh) and Metropolitan (10 lakh+). The Basic Statistical Returns (BSR) report scheduled commercial banks' deposits and credit across these four groups — the standard way India measures the geographic spread of banking.
Where is most bank credit in India?
Credit is heavily concentrated in Metropolitan centres — roughly two-thirds (~66%) of all SCB credit against ~58% of deposits — because large corporate and big-city retail loans are booked there. Rural, Semi-Urban and Urban centres share the remaining ~one-third. Approximate, rounded shares from RBI BSR / DBIE data.
What is the credit-deposit ratio by population group?
The CD ratio is highest in Metropolitan centres (~91%), near the all-India average in Urban centres (~67%) and lowest in Semi-Urban centres (~58%), which run a deposit surplus. Savings raised in semi-urban and rural India partly fund metropolitan lending — a long-standing feature of Indian banking. Figures are indicative and approximate.
Why does the population-group split matter?
It shows how evenly banking serves the country. A gap between a region's deposit share and credit share signals capital flowing toward metropolitan lending — central to financial inclusion, priority-sector lending and the RBI's drive to lift CD ratios in under-banked districts. It complements the bank-group and sectoral-credit views.

Methodology & sources: see how BankPulse dashboards are sourced, verified & updated · machine-readable population-group banking JSON feed.

Last reviewed by
Source: RBI Basic Statistical Returns (BSR) on Banking in India and the RBI Database on the Indian Economy (DBIE), dbie.rbi.org.in. Figures are official estimates, rounded and approximate, and the per-group credit-deposit ratio is indicative. This is our own plain-English paraphrase, not the source’s original text. Reviewed by our expert reviewer, CA Amit Jain. Last updated 15 Jul 2026, 13:02 IST.
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