Ahmedabad (8.5 million inhabitants): largest city of Gujarat, western India — the “Manchester of India” for textiles, Gandhi’s base at Sabarmati Ashram, and India’s first UNESCO World Heritage City.
Last updated: October 2026
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| Population | 8.5 million |
Source: UN World Urbanization Prospects, 2022 Revision (metropolitan agglomeration estimate). Observation date: 2022. The Bureau cross-checked major-city figures against UN WUP; smaller-city figures are presented as published and have not been individually re-verified.
Ahmedabad has a metropolitan population of 8.5 million, according to the UN World Urbanization Prospects (2022 Revision) cited on this page.
Ahmedabad is in India. It is the largest city of Gujarat state, on the Sabarmati River in western India.
Ahmedabad is known as the “Manchester of India” for its historic textile industry, as the city where Gandhi based his independence movement at Sabarmati Ashram, and as India’s first UNESCO World Heritage City.
Ahmedabad was founded in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah, who made it the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate. Under the Mughals it became one of the richest trading cities in India, famed for its textiles, and its old city still carries carved wooden houses, stepwells and the Jama Masjid.
In 1917 Mahatma Gandhi founded Sabarmati Ashram on the city’s outskirts, and Ahmedabad became a base of the independence movement — the starting point of the Dandi Salt March in 1930. In 2017 the historic old city became India’s first UNESCO World Heritage City.
Ahmedabad’s textile mills earned it the nickname “Manchester of India” in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today its economy spans pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering, commerce and a growing information-technology sector, and the city anchors the industrial corridor between Gujarat’s ports and the Delhi–Mumbai freight corridor.
The city is also a major education centre and the commercial capital of Gujarat, one of India’s most industrialised states.
