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Demographics of India
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This article is about the demographic features of the population of India, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The demographics of India is remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.15 billion people (estimate for July, 2008) comprises approximately one-sixth of the world's population. India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a language isolate (the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra).
Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occurs across this population on social parameters such as income and education.
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This article is about the demographic features of the population of India, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The demographics of India is remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.15 billion people (estimate for July, 2008) comprises approximately one-sixth of the world's population. India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a language isolate (the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra).
Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occurs across this population on social parameters such as income and education. Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic, genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India.
Salient features
India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area and supports over 17.5% of the world's population. India has more arable land area than any country except the United States, and more water area than any country except Canada and the United States. Indian life, therefore revolves mostly around agriculture and allied activities in small villages, where the overwhelming majority of Indians live. As per the 2001 census, 72.2% of the population lives in about 638,000 villages and the remaining 27.8% lives in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.
Census
The most recent census of India was conducted in 2001 with the reference date of March 1 of that year. It was the 14th census in an unbroken series, and the 6th after independence in 1947 (with the exception that census could not be held for Assam in the 1981 and Jammu & Kashmir in 1951 and 1991). Eight censuses were performed under the British Raj, the first one was carried out throughout the 1860s and completed in 1872 (The first non-synchronous census). After this, there has been a census every decade starting in 1881 (First synchronous census).
The total population as on 1 March 2001 was 1,027,015,247, making the 2001 census the first to count more than a billion Indians. The population had risen by 21.34% compared to the 1991 total. The proportion of female population had increased by 0.3 percentage points to 48.4% during 1991-2001.
Religious demographics
80.5% of the Indians are Hindus, with 13.4% of the population Muslim, making India home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. India also contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jains and Bahá'í. Other religious groups include Christians (2.3%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), and Jews.
Religious majorities vary greatly by state. Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep are Muslim majority states; Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya are Christian majority; Punjab is mostly Sikh; Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim are mainly Buddhist.
The table below summarizes the findings of the 2001 census with regards to religion in India:
- All figures in %.
- Gender Ratio*: no of females/1000 males
- Others including Bahá'ís, Jews, and Parsis.
- Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Others after 1926 (1931 census onwards)
Table 2: Census information for 2001 | Composition | Hindus | Muslims | Christians | Sikhs | Buddhist | Jains | Others |
|---|
| % total of population 2005 | 80.4% | 13.4% | 2.3% | 1.9% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.5% | | 20.3% | 29.5% | 22.6% | 18.2% | 24.5% | 26.0% | 103.1% | | Sex ratio* (avg. 944) | 935 | 940 | 1009 | 895 | 955 | 940 | 100 | | Literacy rate (avg. 79.9) | 75.5 | 60.0 | 90.3 | 70.4 | 73.0 | 95.0 | 50.0 | | Work Participation Rate | 40.4 | 31.3 | 39.7 | 37.7 | 40.6 | 32.9 | 48.4 | | Rural sex ratio | 944 | 953 | 1001 | 895 | 958 | 937 | 995 | | Urban sex ratio | 922 | 907 | 1026 | 886 | 944 | 941 | 966 | | Child sex ratio (0–6 yrs) | 925 | 950 | 964 | 786 | 942 | 870 | 976 |
Linguistic demographics
40% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada and other languages. Almost 70% of the Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Kashmiri, Telugu, Bangla, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati and other languages. About one-third of the Christians speak Malayalam, one-sixth speak Tamil while the rest speak a variety of languages. In total, there are 1,652 languages and dialects spoken in India.
Table: Ordered by number of native speakers | Rank | Language | colspan=2 | 2001 census
(total population 1,004.59 million) |
|---|
| | | Speakers | Percentage | | 1 | Hindi dialects | 422,048,642 | 41.03% | | 2 | Bengali | 83,369,769 | 8.11% | | 3 | Telugu | 74,002,856 | 7.37% | | 4 | Marathi | 71,936,894 | 6.99% | | 5 | Tamil | 60,793,814 | 5.91% | | 6 | Urdu | 51,536,111 | 5.01% | | 7 | Gujarati | 46,091,617 | 4.48% | | 8 | Kannada | 37,924,011 | 3.69% | | 9 | Malayalam | 33,066,392 | 3.21% | | 10 | Oriya | 33,017,446 | 3.21% | | 11 | Punjabi | 29,102,477 | 2.83% | | 12 | Assamese | 13,168,484 | 1.28% | | 13 | Maithili | 12,179,122 | 1.18% | | 14 | Santali | 6,469,600 | 0.63% | | 15 | Kashmiri | 5,527,698 | 0.54% | | 16 | Nepali | 2,871,749 | 0.28% | | 17 | Sindhi | 2,535,485 | 0.25% | | 18 | Konkani | 2,489,015 | 0.24% | | 19 | Dongri | 2,282,589 | 0.22% | | 20 | Meitei (Manipuri) | 1,466,705* | 0.14% | | 21 | Bodo | 1,350,478 | 0.13% | | 22 | Sanskrit | 14,135 | N | |
* Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001.
** The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results.
N - Stands for negligible.
CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Total Population:
1,147.996 million (July 2008 est. CIA)
1,028.7 million (2001 Census final figures, March 1 enumeration and estimated 124,000 in areas of Manipur that could not be covered in the enumeration)
Rural Population:
72.2%, male: 381,668,992, female: 360,948,755 (2001 Census)
Urban Population:
Age structure:
0–14 years: 30.8%, male: 188,208,196, female: 171,356,024
15–64 years: 64.3%, male: 386,432,921, female: 364,215,759
65+ years: 4.9%, male: 27,258,259, female: 30,031,289 (2007 est.)
The median age of Indians is 25.1 years.
Population growth rate:
1.38% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:
22.69 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:
6.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Literacy rate:
79.9%
Percent of the population under the poverty line:
22% (2006 est.)
Unemployment Rate:
7.8%
Net migration rate:
− -0.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.12 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.098 male(s)/female
15–64 years:
1.061 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.908 male(s)/female
total population:
1.064 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 34.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)
female: 29.23 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 39.42 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
68.59 years
male:
66.28 years
female:
71.17 years (2007 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.81 children born/woman (2007 est.)
The TFR (Total number of children born per women ) according to Religion in 2001 was :
Hindus - 2.0, Muslims - 2.4, Sikhs - 1.6, Christians - 2.1, Buddhists - 2.1, Jains - 1.4 , Animists and Others - 2.99, Tribals - 3.16, Scheduled Castes - 2.89.
Nationality:
noun:
Indian(s)
adjective:
Indian
Religions:
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.8%, Buddhists 0.8%, Jains 0.4%, others 0.7%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 Census)
.
Scheduled Castes and Tribes:
Scheduled Castes: 16.2% (2001 Census)
Scheduled Tribes: 8.2% (2001 Census)
Languages: See Languages of India and List of Indian languages by total speakers.
There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these is Hindi with some 337 million (the second largest being Bangla with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.
2025 Estimate
Table 2: Population Projections (in millions)
| Year | Under 15 | 15-64 | 65+ | Total |
|---|
| 2000 | 361 | 604 | 45 | 1010 | | 2005 | 368 | 673 | 51 | 1093 | | 2010 | 370 | 747 | 58 | 1175 | | 2015 | 372 | 819 | 65 | 1256 | | 2020 | 373 | 882 | 76 | 1331 |
Source: Based on P.N. Mari Bhat, "Indian Demographic Scenario 2025", Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, Discussion Paper No. 27/2001.
Ethnic groups
Unlike the United States, United Kingdom, and Australian Censuses, the national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India, but recognizes many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India).
It should be noted that Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic are mainly linguistic terms and denote speakers of these linguistic groups.
For a list of ethnic groups in the Republic of India (as well as neighboring countries) see ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinent or the tree diagram above.
Further reading
See also
External links
- ; Govt. site with detailed data from 2001 census
- ; generates maps based on 2001 census figures
- ; provides sources of demographic data for India
- A Study by South Asia Research Society, Calcutta
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