Travel Survey
Men travel farther, spend more on daily commute than women - MoSPI survey
This story was originally published at 19:00 IST on 5 October 2026
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NEW DELHI – Nearly 62% of male workers in India travel more than a kilometre daily to their workplaces, compared with almost 42% of female workers, according to a survey. Male workers spend more on monthly commuting expenses on average than female workers, according to the National Household Travel Survey 2025–26 (Jul-Jun) by the statistics ministry.
"Male workers spend an average of INR 835 per month on fixed-workplace commutes compared to INR 533 per month for female workers," the survey said Monday. "61.9% of male workers undertake daily work trips (>1 km) compared to 41.9% of female workers nationwide." This reflects a gender gap in workforce travel in India. Overall, 57.6% of workers travel over a kilometre to work. "Over half of all workers aged 15 years and above perform within-travel-day trips to fixed or non-fixed workplaces (54.5% rural vs. 64.1% urban)," the survey said.
The survey aims to generate robust, data-driven insights into domestic travel patterns and dynamics to support regional transport planning, infrastructure development and evidence-based policy formulation. The survey captures key aspects of domestic travel: purpose of travel, mode of transport, and travel duration and distance.
The survey also found that students aged 15-29 years record the highest regular trip participation at 79.1% in rural areas and 73.3% in urban areas for daily commutes to attend educational institutes.
For non-work travel, 73.5% of Indians used buses and trains for overnight trips. "Buses (55.8%) and inter-city railways (17.7%) are the primary modes for household overnight travel, followed by cars (15.1%) and two-wheelers (8.8%)," the survey said. End
Reported by Shweta
Edited by Saji George Titus
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