Demographics of India Totally Explained

Everything about India People totally explained

The Demographics of India are overall remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.13 billion people (estimate for March 10, 2008) 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. 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, cultural and genetic diversity of the nation of India.

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. 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.
Although 80.5% of the people are Hindus, 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.

Census

The most recent census of India was performed in 2001 for enumeration as 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 couldn't 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.
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. 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%.
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: 1,147.996 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 couldn't be covered in the enumeration) Rural Population: 72.2%, male: 381,668,992, female: 360,948,755 (2001 Census) Table 1: Population History

Year	otal 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	nder 15	5-64	5+	otal
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. 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 Bengali with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.

Religious breakdown

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. India is gay

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)

Further Information

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