The classification of Indian cities is a ranking system used by the Government of India to determine the allocation of House Rent Allowance (HRA) for public servants employed in various cities. HRA is also utilized by the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to offer income tax exemptions. Cities are classified based on their population, as per recommendations from the Sixth Central Pay Commission. According to the most recent HRA city ranking scheme, the media and cultural sectors primarily recognize Tier-X cities as metropolitan. These eight cities are regarded as India’s “metros.”
| HRA Classification | City/Region |
|---|---|
| X (Tier-1 Cities) | Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune |
| Y (Tier-2 Cities) | Agra, Ajmer, Aligarh, Amravati, Amritsar, Anand, Asansol, Aurangabad, Bareilly, Belagavi, Brahmapur, Bhavnagar, Bhiwandi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Bokaro Steel City, Burdwan, Bellary, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Dahod, Dehradun, Dombivli, Dhanbad, Bhilai, Durgapur, Erode, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Guntur, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hamirpur, Hubballi–Dharwad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jalgaon, Jammu, Jamshedpur, Jamnagar, Jhansi, Jodhpur, Kalaburagi, Kakinada, Kannur, Kanpur, Karnal, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kollam, Kota, Kozhikode, Kumbakonam, Kurnool, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Madurai, Malappuram, Mathura, Mangaluru, Meerut, Mohali, Moradabad, Mysuru, Nagpur, Nanded, Nadiad, Nashik, Nellore, Noida, Patna, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Puducherry, Purulia, Prayagraj, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Rourkela, Ratlam, Saharanpur, Salem, Sangli, Shimla, Siliguri, Solapur, Srinagar, Surat, Thanjavur, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Ujjain, Vijayapura, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vasai-Virar, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Vellore, Warangal |
| Z (Tier-3 Cities) | All other cities and towns |
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) classifies centres into six tiers based on population. The tables below show the classification.
| Population classification | Population (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| Tier-1 | 100,000 and above |
| Tier-2 | 50,000 to 99,999 |
| Tier-3 | 20,000 to 49,999 |
| Tier-4 | 10,000 to 19,999 |
| Tier-5 | 5,000 to 9,999 |
| Tier-6 | less than 5,000 |
| Population classification | Population (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| Rural centre | up to 9,999 |
| Semi-urban centre | 10,000 to 99,999 |
| Urban centre | 100,000 to 999,999 |
| Metropolitan centre | 1,000,000 and above |