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Abstract
India is predominantly a rural and agrarian society, and 72 percent of India's population lives in villages according to the 2001 census. Village size varies considerably in the country, with some villages having fewer than 50 residents and some having more than 10,000 residents. The study first examines the growth of villages in India using census data. It then establishes linkages between the size of villages and their level of socio-economic and demographic development. Larger villages have grown rapidly in number and there is a decline in the number of small villages in all the states. Residents of large villages are socio-economically better developed compared to residents of smaller villages, and have higher utilization of maternal and child health-related services. However, it must be stressed that inter-state variation in the provision of basic facilities to villages is larger than the intra-state variations by village size.