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 literacy rate of each district in India

Map showing the sex ratio of each district in India

Chart showing the percentage of population in India below poverty line

India houses a population of 1.1 billion people (2006), comprising approximately one-sixth of the world's population. This population is remarkably diverse; it has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are two major families of languages,^[1] two smaller groups^[2] and one or two language isolates^[3]. Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occurs across this population on social parameters such as income and education. These factors render the task of comprehensively detailing the Demographics of India prohibitive; some important indices are available, nevertheless. Image File history File links India_population_density_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_population_density_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_decadal_growth_rate_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_decadal_growth_rate_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_literacy_rate_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_literacy_rate_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_sex_ratio_map_en. ... Image File history File links India_sex_ratio_map_en. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1058x789, 140 KB) Data Source: Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1058x789, 140 KB) Data Source: Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ...

Salient features

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 16% of the world's population. Currently it is the second most populous nation on Earth, though if current trends persist, India will replace China as the most populous nation in less than 40 years. 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 and migrations from the Middle East, Central Asia and the West, as well as migrations from Tibet and southern China; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis. 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 largest number of English speakers in the world with over 750 million people speaking English in India. 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. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Alternative meaning: In geology, North China (continent) and South China (continent) were two ancient landmasses that correspond to modern northern and southern China. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Although 82.0% of the people are Hindus, India is also home to the second-largest Muslim population in the world (13.1%). India also contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians (0.01%), Sikhs (1.94%) and Jains (0.40%). Other religious groups include Christians (2.3%), Buddhists (0.76%), Jews and Bahá'ís. {{Hinduism small} Hinduism (Sanskrit/Devanagari: , , also known as , ) is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent. ... Distribution of Islam per country. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... Zoroastrianism was adapted from an earlier, polytheistic faith by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia very roughly around 1000 BC (although, in the absence of written records, some scholars estimates are as late as 600 BC). ... Sikhism (IPA: or ; Punjabi: , , IPA: ) is a religion that began in sixteenth century Northern India with the teachings of Nanak and nine successive human gurus. ... Jaina redirects here. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Buddhism is a dharmic, non-theistic religion, a philosophy, and a life-enhancing system of psychology. ... Seat of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, governing body of the Baháís The Baháí Faith is a religion founded by Baháulláh in 19th century Persia. ...

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 jātis, 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. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In South Asias caste system, an untouchable, dalit, or achuta is a person outside of the four castes, and considered below them. ... Jātis (the word literally means births) comprise the subcastes found within the four major castes, or varnas, of the Indian caste system. ...

Census

The most recent census of India was performed in 2001. It was the 14th census in an unbroken series, and the 6th after independence in 1947 (except for Assam which did not figure in the 1981 census). Eight censuses were performed under the British Raj, the first one was carried out throughout the 1860s and completed in 1871. After this, there has been one census every decade. 1870 US Census for New York City A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ... This article is about the year 2001. ... Assam   (Assamese: অসম Ôxôm) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur - now a part of Guwahati. ... The British Empire at its zenith in 1919. ... // Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States is built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

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 houseless 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%. This is a list of States and Union Territories of India by urban population estimated for the year 2001 by Census of India. ...

Key data

Population: 1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.); 1,028,737,436 (2001 Census)

Rural Population: 742,617,747(72.2%)(Male: 381,668,992, Female: 360,948,755) (2001 Census)

Table 1: Population History

Urban: Age structure:
0–14 years: 30.8%(male 173,478,760/female 163,852,827)
15–64 years: 64.3% (male 363,876,219/female 340,181,764)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 27,258,020/female 26,704,405) (2006 est.)

The average age of Indians is 26 years.

Population growth rate: 1.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate: 22.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate: 8.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

literacy rate: 68.4%

Percent of the population under the poverty line: 22%(2006 est.)

Unemployment Rate: 9.2%

Net migration rate: −0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 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: 1.02 male(s)/female
total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate: total: 54.63 deaths/1,000 live births female: 55.18 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.) male: 54.05 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.71 years
male: 63.9 years
female: 65.57 years (2006 est.)
World map of life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure defined as the expected (mean) survival of human beings based upon a number of criteria such as gender and geographic location. ...

Total fertility rate: 2.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian

Religions: Hindu 82%, Muslim 12.20%, Christian 2.31%, Sikh 2.00%, Buddhists 0.77%, Jains 0.41 %, Others or not stated 0.76% (2001 Census)

Scheduled Castes and Tribes: Scheduled Castes: 16.2% (2001 Census) Scheduled Tribes: 8.2% (2001 Census)

Languages: See Languages of India, List of Indian languages by total speakers There are 216 languages/dialects 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 Telugu with some 80 million). 22 languages are recognized as "official languages". In India there is overall 415 total languages. Map of South Asia in native languages. ... Indian languages spoken by more than ten million people are given below. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati... Look up telugu in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... India has a diverse list of spoken languages among different groups of people. ...

Religious 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. ... The Arthashastra (more precisely Arthaśāstra) is a treatise on statecraft and economic policy which identifies its author by the names Kauṭilya[1] and Viṣṇugupta,[2] who are traditionally identified with the Mauryan minister Cāṇakya. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) 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. This article is about the year 2001. ...

Breakup of India's religions: ██ Hinduism — 80.5% ██ Islam — 13.8% ██ Christianity — 2.3% ██ Sikhism — 1.9% ██ Buddhism, Jainism, others — 1.5%

1. All figures in %.
2. Gender Ratio*: no of females/1000 males
3. Others includes Jews, Parsis and Bahá'ís
4. Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Hindu after 1926 (1931 census onwards)

However, some unofficial estimates claim a higher figure of Muslim population supposedly discounted in Censuses. For instance, in an interview with a well circulated newspaper of India The Hindu Justice K.M. Yusuf, a retired Judge from Calcutta High Court and Chairman of West Bengal Minority Commission, says that the real percentage of Muslims in India is at least 20%. [1]. On the other hand, some believe that Muslim population figures are exaggerated due to various reasons. For instance, As per Syed Shahabuddin, a diplomat-turned-politician, a Muslim scholar and one of the members in the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, both Hindu and Muslim ‘spokesmen’, speaking for their respective communities amplify and exaggerate the Muslim population in India, the first, to convince their followers about the rising ‘Islamic menace’, a threat to the country and at least to its Hindu character, the second, to raise the morale of a politically deprived, educationally backward, economically poor and socially vilified, frustrated community.[2] Image File history File links India_religion_pi_graph. ... Image File history File links India_religion_pi_graph. ... India is the birthplace of Hinduism. ... Islam is the second-largest religion in India (after Hinduism - 76. ... The Nasrani Menorah, the symbol of the Knanaya community in South India. ... Sikhism has been in India for over 500 years. ... A fresco from the Ajanta caves in Maharashtra, India, once a gathering places for Buddhist monks. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: original research / personal essay / non-neutral POV If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... A Muslim couple is being wed in India, even as a Hindu man takes his ritual bath in the river. ... A Parsi (IPA: ) is a member of the close-knit Zoroastrian community based in the Indian subcontinent. ... Seat of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, governing body of the Baháís The Baháí Faith is a religion founded by Baháulláh in 19th century Persia. ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... This article is becoming very long. ... A Sikh (IPA: or ; Punjabi: , , IPA: ) is an adherent of Sikhism. ... 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. ...

Ethnic Groups

Unlike the USA, UK, and Australian Censuses, the national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India ^[4] but recognizes many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India). Organizations and individuals not affiliated with India's national census have classified India into racial/ethnic groups. These racial and ethnic groups are debated (see Racial groups in India (historical definitions)). According to the Joshua Project, there are 2,334 ethnic groups in India.[3] The Indian people are descended from more or less all of the peoples that historically settled the subcontinent, including the Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Austro-Asiatics, Tibeto-Burmans, Persians, Greeks, Bactrians, Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, Hepthalites, Arabs, Pashtuns, Turks, Mughals, Siddis and Europeans. The Australian census is run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ... This article talks about the origin of the terms Scheduled Cases and Scheduled Tribes in India Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are communities that are accorded special status by the Constitution of India. ... This is a full list of Scheduled Tribes in India, as recognised in Indias Constitution. ... This article presents some historical definitions of race in India. ... Dravidian people, Dravidian race or Dravidians are terms that are some times given to people of India (mainly Southern India), Northern Sri Lanka, and parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal who currently speak Dravidian languages or are historically assumed to have spoken Dravidian languages but no longer are. ... Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatama Gandhi and a Rajasthani tribesman The Indo-Aryans are the ethno-linguistic descendents of the Indic branch of the Indo-Iranians. ... Austro-Asiatic languages The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. ... The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (the Burmese language as well as the languages of minorities like the Karens and Kachins), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Lahu, Lisu, Akha languages), southern China, Nepal, Bhutan... Faravahar is a prominent guardian spirit in Zoroastrianism and Iranian culture that is believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi. ... Faravahar is a prominent guardian spirit in Zoroastrianism and Iranian culture that is believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi. ... Faravahar is a prominent guardian spirit in Zoroastrianism and Iranian culture that is believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi. ... Faravahar is a prominent guardian spirit in Zoroastrianism and Iranian culture that is believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi. ... Boundary of the Kushan empire, c. ... The Hephthalites, also known as White Huns, were a nomadic people who lived across northern China, Central Asia, and northern India in the fourth through sixth centuries. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب) are a heterogeneous ethnic group who are predominantly speakers of the Arabic language, mainly found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ... Faravahar is a prominent guardian spirit in Zoroastrianism and Iranian culture that is believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi. ... The Mughal Empire at its greatest extent. ... Not to be confused with the Hindu term Siddhi (though sometimes spelt in the same way). ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ...

It also must be noted that Dravidian, Austro-asiatic and Indo-aryan are linguistic terms and cannot be directly taken as ethnic terms. It simply means a speaker of a language belonging to a particular linguitic family. The speakers of these languages descend from a plethora of different races that eventually adopted one or more set of languages. The imprint of each of these groups can be found in at least some small segments of the population, but at the same time over a long period of time these superficial differences in appearances have blurred to a great extent. The framework of the culture of the Indian people comes from these various peoples who contributed to Indian civilization as it is today.

See also

• Muslim population growth in India

South Asia has three large nation states that constituted the former British India (now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). ...

References

1. ^ Indo-European languages and Dravidian languages
2. ^ Munda languages and Tibeto-Burman languages.
3. ^ the Nihali language; the Burushaski language is spoken in disputed parts of Kashmir.
4. ^ Kumar, Jayant. Census of India. 2001. September 4, 2006. <http://www.censusindia.net/>.

The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73[1] languages that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and by overseas Dravidians in other countries... Munda Languages are spoken in north east India. ... The Tibeto-Burman linguistic subfamily of the proposed Sino-Tibetan language family is spoken in various central and south Asian countries: Myanmar (the Burmese language as well as the languages of minorities like the Karens and Kachins), Tibet (Tibetan language), northern Thailand (Lahu, Lisu, Akha languages), southern China, Nepal, Bhutan... Nihali is a language isolate of India. ... Burushaski (ISO/DIS 639-3 bsk) is a language isolate spoken by some 50,000-60,000 Burusho people in the Hunza, Nagar, Yasin, and parts of the Gilgit valleys in northern Pakistan and Kashmir. ... Kashmir (or Cashmere) may refer to: Kashmir region, the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent India, Kashmir conflict, the territorial dispute between India, Pakistan, and the China over the Kashmir region. ...

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
• Demographic data for India; provides sources of demographic data for India
• Peopling of India
• http://kokrajhar.nic.in/census.htm
• Population Explosion in West Bengal: A Survey A Study by South Asia Research Society, Calcutta
• http://www.indianchild.com/population_of_india.htm
• EventsInIndia.com; List of various events happening in India
• [http://citizenxpress.com/blog/view/226/ National Population Policy 2000 : A Vision For Developed Indian Society