Map showing the population density of each state in India

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. More than 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over thousands of years of its history, India has had invasions from the Middle East, Central Asia, and the West; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis. A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 22 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken. India also has the second largest number of English speakers in the world with over 150 million people speaking English in India. Caste systems are traditional, hereditary systems of social stratification. ... Hindi (हिन्दी hind), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in North, Central, and Western India, is one of the national languages of India. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Map showing the literacy rate of each state in India

Although more than 80% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 130 million Muslims—one of the world's largest Muslim populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Ayyavazhi, Bahá'ís, and Jews. A Hindu (archaic Hindoo), as per modern definition is an adherent of philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of the Indian subcontinent and the island of Bali. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus, the Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism, a religious faith originating in the Punjab. ... Pre-Kushana Ayagapatta from Mathura Jainism (pronounced in English as //), traditionally known as Jain Dharma (जैन धर्म) , is a religion and philosophy originating in the prehistory of South Asia. ... A replica of an ancient statue of Gautama Buddha, found from Sarnath, near Varanasi. ... Faravahar (or Ferohar), the depiction of the human soul before birth and after death. ... Ayyavazhi (Tamil: path of the father), officially a Tamil Hindu monistic sect that originated in South India in the mid-19th century. ... Seat of the Universal House of Justice, governing body of the Baháís in Haifa Israel The Baháí Faith is an emerging global religion founded by Baháulláh, a 19th century Persian exile. ...

The caste system reflects Indian occupational and socio-religiously defined hierarchies. Traditionally, there are four broad categories of castes (varnas), including a category of outcastes, earlier called "untouchables" but now commonly referred to as "dalits." Within these broad categories there are thousands of castes and subcastes, called jatis, whose relative status varies from region to region. Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the class structure, the caste system remains an important source of social identification for most Hindus and many non-Hindus as well, thus making it a potent factor in the political life of the country. Caste systems are traditional, hereditary systems of social stratification. ... Untouchable may refer to any of the following: Formerly or derogatively, to the large Dalit (outcaste) populations of India and Nepal. ... In South Asias caste system, an untouchable, dalit, or achuta is a person outside of the four castes, and considered below them. ... Jatis (the word literally means births) comprise the subcastes found within the four major castes, or varnas, of the Indian caste system. ...

Key data

Population: 1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0–14 years: 31.2%(male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475)
15–64 years: 63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005 est.)

The average age of Indians is 26 years.

Population growth rate: 1.4% (2005 est.)

Birth rate: 22.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate: 8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate: −0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.03 male(s)/female
total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.) male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.35 years
male: 63.57 years
female: 65.16 years (2005 est.)
World map showing Life expectancy Life expectancy is the average number of years remaining for a living being (or the average for a class of living beings) of a given age to live. ...

Total fertility rate: 2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian

Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan(Caucasoid) 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% The Indo-Aryans are the linguistic descendents of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranians. ... Typical Caucasoid Skull Caucasoid is a racial classification usually used as part of a system also including Australoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and sometimes others such as Capoid. ... The Dravidian Race is the name sometimes still given to the peoples of southern and central India and northern Sri Lanka who speak Dravidian languages, the best known of which are Tamil (தமிழ்), Telugu (తెలుగు), Kannada and Malayalam. ... Typical Mongoloid Skull A portrait of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan; the Mongolians, for which the term Mongoloid was named after, are an example of the prototype Northern Mongoloid. ...

Religions: Hindu 80.46%, Muslim 13.43%, Christian 2.34%, Sikh 1.87%, Buddhists 0.77%, Jains 0.41 %, Others or not stated 0.72% (2001 Census)

Languages: See Languages of India, List of Indian languages by total speakers There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these by far is Hindi with some 337 million (the second largest being Bengali with some 70 million). 22 languages are recognized as "official languages". To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Indian languages spoken by more than ten million people are given below. ... Hindi (हिन्दी hind), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in North, Central, and Western India, is one of the national languages of India. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Religion-wise breakdown

Censuses were conducted in India in ancient times with examples such as Kautilya's Arthashastra which describes the collection of population statistics for taxation. The British census in 1871 was the first conducted in modern times in India. Chanakya (c. ... Arthashastra (also spelt Arthasastra) or the Handbook of Profit is an ancient Indian treatise on economics and politics written sometime between the 4th century BC and 150 AD by the kingmaker Chanakya (also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta) during the early years of the Mauryan Empire. ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

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

1. All figures in %.
2. Gender Ratio*: no of females/1000 males
3. Others includes Tribal Animists, Jews, Parsis and Bahá'ís

• Jews number about 4,000 of which 2,000 reside in Bombay.
• Parsis number about 65,000, down from 71,000

This article is about (members of) the Parsi Zoroastrian community in and from India. ... Seat of the Universal House of Justice, governing body of the Baháís in Haifa Israel The Baháí Faith is an emerging global religion founded by Baháulláh, a 19th century Persian exile. ... A Hindu (archaic Hindoo), as per modern definition is an adherent of philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of the Indian subcontinent and the island of Bali. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus, the Christ, as recounted in the New Testament. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism, a religious faith originating in the Punjab. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... JAIN is an activity within the Java Community Process, developing APIs for the creation of telephony (voice and data) services. ... Mumbai (Hindi / Marathi: मुंबई) (pronounced ), formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the most populous city of India, with an estimated metropolitan population of about 12 million (2005). ...

Ethnic Groups in India

The people of India belong to different Ethnic groups. There are atleast 4365^{[citation needed]} different ethnic groups in India. These are divided into these broad groups. These ethnic groups are as follows.

Negritos: The Negritos or the Brachycephalic (broad headed) people from Africa were perhaps the earliest people to inhabit India. They have survived in their original inhabitat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and the Great Andamanese are some of the examples. Some hill tribes like Irulas, Kodars, Paniyans, and Kurumbas are found in some patches in Southern part of mainland India.

Pro-Australoids or Austrics: These groups were probably next to come to India after the Negritos. They are now found in some parts of India, Myanmar and the islands of South-East Asia. Their languages have survived in Central and Eastern India and are said to "form the bedrock of the people".

Mongoloids: These people are found in the North eastern part of India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also found in Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Ladakh.

Dravidians: These are the culture bearers of the people of South India. They have been believed to come before the Aryans. They have different sub-groups like the Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and the Oriental Mediterranean.

Western Bracycephals: These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids. The Parsis (who came long after the Indo-Aryans) and Kodavas also fall in this category.

Indo-Aryans: This group were the last ones to immigrate to India. They came to India somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. They are now mainly found in the northern and central parts of India. Semang, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. ... The cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum breadth of the head to its maximum length, sometimes multiplied by 100 for convenience. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ... Map of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an extra detailed area around Port Blair The Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India. ... The Jarawa are an isolated people native to the Andaman Islands of the Bay of Bengal, south of India. ... The Onge (also Ongee) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... The Sentinelese (also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related groups or tribes of indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely-situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands. ... Irulas is a scheduled tribe of India. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Kuruma. ... Australoid is a broad racial sub-classification of black peoples having generally dark skin and coarse hair which can be curly, straight, or kinky. ... Australoid is a broad racial sub-classification of black peoples having generally dark skin and coarse hair which can be curly, straight, or kinky. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Typical Mongoloid Skull A portrait of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan; the Mongolians, for which the term Mongoloid was named after, are an example of the prototype Northern Mongoloid. ... Assam (অসম) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur. ... Nagaland is a state in northeast India. ... Mizoram is a state in northeastern India. ... Meghalaya (मेघालय in Devanāgarī) is a small state in north-eastern India. ... Arunachal Pradesh (अरुणाचल प्रदेश) is a region administered by India as a state. ... Manipur (মনিপুর) is a state in northeastern India making its capital in the city of Imphal. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tripura Tripura (ত্রিপুরা) is a state in North-east India. ... West Bengal (পশ্চিম বঙ্গ, Poshchim Bôngo) is a state in the eastern region of India. ... Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayas. ... Tikse monastery, Ladakh Ladakh is the largest district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, covering more than half the area of the state (of which it is the eastern part). ... Dravidian may refer to: in the spiritualistic interpretations: the people who are the drav i. ... A map of Southern India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ... The cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum breadth of the head to its maximum length, sometimes multiplied by 100 for convenience. ... In physical anthropology, the Dinaric race is one of the Europid (White, Caucasoid) races, and it is endemic primarily to the Dinaric Alps (the western part of the Balkan Peninsula). ... This article needs to be wikified. ... This article is about (members of) the Parsi Zoroastrian community in and from India. ... The Kodava are a people of southern India. ... The Indo-Aryans are the linguistic descendents of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranians. ... Bold text To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Most of this information was collected from [1]

External links

Wikinews has news related to:

India subsidizes girls' education to offset gender imbalance

• Census of India; Govt. site with detailed data from 2001 census
• Census of India map generator; generates maps based on 2001 census figures
• Peopling of India

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