Jump to: navigation, search

Demographics of India
The demographics of
India are remarkably
diverse. India is the
second most populous
country in the world,
with over 1.18 billion
people (estimate for
April, 2010), more than
a sixth of the world's
Population of India, 1961-2003 population. Already
containing 17.31% of
Population: 1,180,166,000 (2010 est)
the world's population,
Growth rate: 1.548% (2009 est) India is projected to be
Birth rate: 22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est) the world's most
Death rate: 6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est) populous country by
2025, surpassing
Life expectancy: 69.89 years (2009 est)
China, its population
–male: 67.46 years (2009 est) exceeding 1.6 billion
–female: 72.61 years (2009 est) people by 2050.[1][2]
Fertility rate: 2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008) However, India has an
astonishing
Infant mortality {{{infant_mortality}}}
demographic dividend
rate:
where more than 50%
Age structure: of its population is
0-14 years: 31.1% (male 190,075,426/female below the age of 25 and
172,799,553) (2009 est) more than 65% hovers
15-64 years: 63.6% (male 381,446,079/female below the age of 35. It
359,802,209) (2009 est) is expected that, in
65-over: 5.3% (male 29,364,920/female 32,591,030) 2020, the average age
(2009 est) of an Indian will be 29
years, compared to 37
Sex ratio:
for China and 48 for
At birth: 1.12 male(s)/female (2009) Japan; and, by 2030,
Under 15: 1.10 male(s)/female (2009) India's dependency
15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female (2009) ratio should be just
over 0.4.[3] India has
65-over: 0.90 male(s)/female (2009) more than two
Nationality: thousand ethnic groups,
Major ethnic: See Ethnic Groups of India and every major
Language:
religion is represented,
as are four major
Official: See Languages of India families of languages
(Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a
language isolate (the Nihali language[4] 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.[5]

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,[6]
and more water area than any country except Canada and the United States. Indian life
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[7] lives in about 638,000 villages[8] and the remaining 27.8%[9] lives in more
than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.[10]

[edit] Religious demographics

Main article: Religion in India

Table 1: 2001 Religious Data Composotion[11]
Religious Composition Population (%)
Hindus 827,578,868 80.5%
Muslims 138,188,240 13.4%
Christians 24,080,016 2.3%
Sikhs 19,215,730 1.9%
Buddhists 7,955,207 0.8%
Jains 4,225,053 0.4%
Other Religions & Persuasions 6,639,626 0.6%
Religion not stated 727,588 0.1%
1,028,610,32
Total 100.0%
8
N.B. "Total" excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of
Manipur state.

India contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Bahá'í.
India is also home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and
Pakistan.

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; It is to be noted that while participants in the Indian census may
choose to not declare their religion, there is no mechanism for a person to indicate that
he/she does not adhere to any religion. Due to this limitation in the Indian census process,
the data for persons not affiliated with any religion may not be accurate