Why this page, and what it is not
India has 12.40 lakh chemists and druggists (AIOCD, March 2026). No public dataset says how many are in each state: retail drug licences are issued by state drug controllers and the counts are not published centrally. The closest official, state-by-state measure is the number of registered pharmacists, which the Pharmacy Council of India reports through the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence. Every pharmacy must have a registered pharmacist, so the register is the best public proxy for where pharmacy capacity sits. It is a proxy: a registered pharmacist may work in a hospital, a company, or not at all.
Registered pharmacists per lakh population
| # | State / UT | Registered pharmacists (15 Dec 2021) | Population (Census 2011) | Per lakh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chandigarh | 4,631 | 10,55,450 | 439 |
| 2 | Goa | 4,614 | 14,58,545 | 316 |
| 3 | Maharashtra | 3,04,172 | 11,23,74,333 | 271 |
| 4 | Puducherry | 2,855 | 12,47,953 | 229 |
| 5 | Kerala | 74,502 | 3,34,70,534 | 223 |
| 6 | Gujarat | 1,27,634 | 6,10,26,648 | 209 |
| 7 | Punjab | 53,518 | 2,77,43,338 | 193 |
| 8 | Delhi | 30,905 | 1,67,87,941 | 184 |
| 9 | Uttarakhand | 18,500 | 1,00,86,292 | 183 |
| 10 | Haryana | 36,655 | 2,53,51,462 | 145 |
| 11 | Andhra Pradesh + Telangana | 1,16,674 | 8,45,80,777 | 138 |
| 12 | Himachal Pradesh | 9,082 | 68,64,602 | 132 |
| 13 | Tamil Nadu | 87,929 | 7,25,27,611 | 121 |
| 14 | Karnataka | 67,548 | 6,10,95,297 | 111 |
| 15 | West Bengal | 89,630 | 9,12,76,115 | 98 |
| 16 | Tripura | 3,357 | 36,73,917 | 91 |
| 17 | Madhya Pradesh | 59,242 | 7,26,26,809 | 82 |
| 18 | Odisha | 34,050 | 4,19,74,218 | 81 |
| 19 | Nagaland | 1,553 | 19,78,502 | 79 |
| 20 | Chhattisgarh | 19,955 | 2,55,45,198 | 78 |
| 21 | Rajasthan | 51,540 | 6,85,48,437 | 75 |
| 22 | Mizoram | 594 | 10,97,206 | 54 |
| 23 | Meghalaya | 1,395 | 29,66,889 | 47 |
| 24 | Sikkim | 281 | 6,10,577 | 46 |
| 25 | Uttar Pradesh | 91,278 | 19,98,12,341 | 46 |
| 26 | Assam | 12,928 | 3,12,05,576 | 41 |
| 27 | Manipur | 989 | 28,55,794 | 35 |
| 28 | Arunachal Pradesh | 359 | 13,83,727 | 26 |
| 29 | Bihar | 24,341 | 10,40,99,452 | 23 |
| 30 | Jharkhand | 3,487 | 3,29,88,134 | 11 |
| India | 13,34,198 | 1,21,08,54,977 | 110 |
Notes: Gujarat includes Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli; Kerala includes Lakshadweep; Tamil Nadu includes Andaman & Nicobar; Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are combined (their pharmacist counts summed) against the undivided Andhra Pradesh population of 2011. PCI data for Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana runs to 31.12.2019; for Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand to 31.12.2020. Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh: pharmacist count not available in the source. Figures are copied from the source tables without adjustment.
What this means for the neighbourhood pharmacy
Capacity and competition travel together. The states with the most pharmacists per person (Chandigarh, Goa, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab, Delhi) are also where quick commerce arrived first.
The populous north and east are thinnest. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal have the fewest pharmacists per person. That is where the neighbourhood chemist is the only medicine infrastructure, and where a platform that works for small shops matters most.
The North East is below the national figure on every measure. Distance, not demand, is the problem; see An entrepreneur from Assam, building for India.
Sources
- Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, National Health Profile 2022, Table 5.1.5: state/UT-wise registered nurses and pharmacists; pharmacists as on 15.12.2021, source Pharmacy Council of India.
- Census of India 2011, state populations, as reproduced in National Health Profile 2022, Table 1.1.2(a), Office of the Registrar General of India.
- AIOCD, chemists and druggists in India, 12.40 lakh, March 2026 (national only).