Demographics of India
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Population growth, from 443 million in 1960 to 1,004 million in 2000
Population growth, from 443 million in 1960 to 1,004 million in 2000
Map showing the population density of each district in India
Map showing the population density of each district in India
Map showing the population growth over the past ten years of each district in India
Map showing the population growth over the past ten years of each district in India
Map showing the literacy rate of each district in India
Map showing the literacy rate of each district in India
Chart showing the percentage of population in India below poverty line
Chart showing the percentage of population in India below poverty line
Chart showing the Total Fertility Rate of Indian states (SRS survey 1996-98)
Chart showing the Total Fertility Rate of Indian states (SRS survey 1996-98)[1]

The Demographics of India are overall remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.13 billion people (estimate for March 10, 2008)citation needed comprises approximately one-sixth of the world's population. India is expected to overtake China by 2030 and will then be the most populated country in the world.[2] 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[3] 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, cultural and genetic diversity of the nation of India.[4]

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Salient features

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 17.5% of the world's population. 31.8% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age.[5] As per the 2001 census, 72.22% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 2000 towns and cities.citation needed[6]

Although 80.5% of the people are Hindus,[7] India, with 13.4% of its population Muslim, is also 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 and Jains. Other religious groups include Christians (2.3%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jews and Bahá'ís.[8]

Census

The most recent census of India was performed in 2001 for enumeration as of March 1 of that year.[9] 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 1991). Eight censuses were performed under the British Raj, the first one was carried out throughout the 1860s and completed in 1872. After this, there has been one census every decade starting in 1881.

The 2001 census was conducted in two phases, the first being Housenumbering and Houselisting operations, carried out in May 2000, and the second being population enumeration, carried out from February 9 to 28, 2001. The reference time for the census is 1 March, 2001. The homeless population was enumerated on 28 February. A revisional round was undertaken 1 to 5 March 2001 to account for mutations between the time of visit in February and 1 March.citation needed

The total population calculated for 1 March 2001 was 1,027,015,247, making the 2001 census the first to count more than a billion Indians.[10] The population had risen by 21.34% compared to the 1991 total. The female population had increased by 0.3 percentage points to 48.4%.[11]

See list of States of India by urban population. Maharashtra has the largest urban agglomeration while Delhi is the most urbanised market at over 93% urbanization.

Key data

Total Population: 1,129.9 million (July 1, 2007 est. CIA)[12] 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)

Table 1: Population History

Year Total Population
1950 357,000,000
1960 443,000,000
1970 553,000,000
1980 684,000,000
1990 838,141,000
2000 1,004,591,054
2005 1,095,054,669
2007 1,129,866,154

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.

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 average age of Indians is 24.8 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.[13]

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)[14][15][16][17][18].

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 Bengali with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.[19][20]

Religious breakdown

Main article: Religion in India

Censuses were conducted in parts of India in the ancient times with examples such as Kautilya's Arthashastra which describes the collection of population statistics for taxation in 4th century B.C.. The British census in 1865-1872 was the first conducted in modern times in India.

The 2001 census figures released by the India Census Commission give a breakdown by various parameters including religion.

  1. All figures in %.
  2. Gender Ratio*: no of females/1000 males
  3. Others including Bahá'ís, Jews, and Parsis.
  4. Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Others after 1926 (1931 census onwards)
Table 2: Census information for 2001[α][β]
Composition Hindus[21] Muslims[22] Christians[23] Sikhs[24] Buddhist[25] Jains[26] Others[27]
 % total of population 2005 80.4% 13.4% 2.3% 1.9% 1.1% 0.4% 0.5%
10-Yr Growth % (est '91–'01)[28][β] 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[28] 944 953 1001 895 958 937 995
Urban sex ratio[28] 922 907 1026 886 944 941 966
Child sex ratio (0–6 yrs) 925 950 964 786 942 870 976

Source: The First Report on Religion: Census of India 2001[29]

     α.   ^  The data excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur

     β.   ^  The data is "unadjusted" (without excluding Assam and Jammu and Kashmir); 1981 census was not conducted in Assam and 1991 census was not conducted in Jammu and Kashmir

It should also be noted that about 40% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati,Kannada and other languages. Almost 70% of the Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Kashmiri, Bengali, 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.

Ethnic groups

Unlike the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Australian Censuses, the national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India,[30] 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.

References

  1. ^ National Population Policy of India
  2. ^ Indian Population,Population of India,Indian Census 2001,India's population by religion,age sex ration,Rural urban migration,indian govt. policy on population - India Finance & Investment Guide
  3. ^ SIL International. Ethnologue report for Language Isolate. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  4. ^ India, a Country Study United States Library of Congress, Note on Ethnic groups
  5. ^ CIA - The World Factbook - India
  6. ^ http://www.censusindia.net/results/rudist.html
  7. ^ CIA - The World Factbook - India
  8. ^ http://www.censusindia.net/religiondata/
  9. ^ Census of India, Govt. of India - Ministry of Home Affairs, Official web-site | We also count people in India
  10. ^ http://www.censusindia.net/results/resultsmain.html
  11. ^ http://www.censusindia.net/results/
  12. ^ CIA World Factbook - India
  13. ^ http://www.censusindia.net/results/fseries_tables/data_highlights_F9_F10.pdf
  14. ^ Census of India. Government website with detailed data from 2001 census.
  15. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90228.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2007 - India]
  16. ^ Indian Census 2001 - Religion
  17. ^ CIA's The World Factbook - India
  18. ^ Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs - Background Note: India
  19. ^ Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961 Census
  20. ^ Rupert Goodwins. Smashing India's language barriers. ZDNet UK.
  21. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Hindus (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  22. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Muslims (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  23. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Christians (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  24. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Sikhs (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  25. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Buddhists (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  26. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Jains (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  27. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions: Other religions (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  28. ^ a b c A snapshot of population size, distribution, growth and socio economic characteristics of religious communities from Census 2001 (PDF). Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION pp1–9. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
  29. ^ Tables: Profiles by main religions.. Census of India 2001: DATA ON RELIGION. Office of the Registrar General, India. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  30. ^ Kumar, Jayant. Census of India. 2001. September 4, 2006. http://www.censusindia.net/.

Further reading

  • International Institute for Population Sciences and Macro International (2007-09-09). Summary of Findings (PDF). Third National Family Health Survey. International Institute for Population Sciences.

See also

External links

v • d • e
Life in India
Flag of India
v • d • e
Demographics of Asia
1 Transcontinental country.  2 Only recognised by Turkey.  3 Not fully independent.
v • d • e
Ethnic groups in Asia
1 Transcontinental country.  2 Only recognised by Turkey.  3 Not fully independent.
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