What do we mean by demography?
Demography can be defined as the general science of studying human population. It is the statistics of the population that is subjected to spatio-temporal change in accordance with aging, birth, death, migration etc. The demography of any place helps to gather information about the population, religion, language and ethnicity of that place.
What data do we get from India demographics?
India demographics occupy 2nd rank among the world's most populated countries. With its current population of more than 1.21 billion people (As per Census of India 2011), the country is estimated to surpass China and be the leading populous country in the world. The total population of the nation is growing at the rate of 1.41 %. Similar to any other demography, Indian demography even projects varied information regarding the country. Let us have a quick look at the information, which can be gathered from the demography of our nation as provided in the report published by the Census Operations of India post Census 2011:
Population:
- Total: 1, 210, 193, 422
- Females: 5, 86, 469, 174
- Males: 6, 23, 724, 248
Decadal growth (2001 - 2011): 1, 81, 455, 986
Decadal growth rate (2001 - 2011): 17.64 %
Birth rate: 20.97 births/ 1, 000 population
Growth rate: 1.344 %
Death rate: 7.48 deaths/ 1, 000 populations
Fertility rate: 2.62 children born/ woman
Infant mortality rate:
- Total: 47.57 deaths/ 1, 000 live births
- Female: 49.14 deaths/ 1, 000 live births
- Male: 46.18 deaths/ 1, 000 live births
- Total: 66.8 years
- Female: 67.95 years
- Male: 65.77 years
- 65 years and over: 5.5 % (Male: 30, 831, 190 and Female: 33, 998, 613)
- 15 years to 64 years: 64.9 % (Male: 3, 98, 757, 331 and Female: 3, 72, 719, 379)
- 0 years to 14 years: 29.7 % (Male: 1, 87, 450, 635 and Female: 1, 65, 415, 758)
- Total: 77, 84, 54, 120
- Females: 33, 42, 50, 358
- Males: 44, 42, 03, 762
- Total: 74.04 %
- Females: 65.46 %
- Males: 82.14 %
Indian States and Union Territories Population, Area and Density
The state-wise details of India's population and area can be gathered from the following table:
| Name of state | Area in sq. km. | Population (As per Census 2011) | Density per sq. km. |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2, 75, 045 | 84, 665, 533 | 308 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 83, 743 | 1, 382, 611 | 17 |
| Assam | 78, 438 | 31, 169, 272 | 397 |
| Bihar | 94, 163 | 1, 03, 804, 637 | 1, 102 |
| Chhattisgarh | 1, 35, 191 | 25, 540, 196 | 189 |
| Goa | 3, 702 | 1, 457, 723 | 394 |
| Gujarat | 1, 96, 024 | 60, 383, 628 | 308 |
| Haryana | 44, 212 | 25, 353, 081 | 573 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 55, 673 | 6, 856, 509 | 123 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 2, 22, 236 | 12, 548, 926 | 56 |
| Jharkhand | 79, 714 | 32, 966, 238 | 414 |
| Karnataka | 1, 91, 791 | 61, 130, 704 | 319 |
| Kerala | 38, 863 | 33, 387, 677 | 859 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3, 08, 245 | 72, 597, 565 | 236 |
| Maharashtra | 3, 07, 713 | 1, 12, 372, 972 | 365 |
| Manipur | 22, 327 | 2, 721, 756 | 122 |
| Meghalaya | 22, 429 | 2, 964, 007 | 132 |
| Mizoram | 21, 081 | 1, 091, 014 | 52 |
| Nagaland | 16, 579 | 1,980,602 | 119 |
| Orissa | 1, 55, 707 | 41, 947, 358 | 269 |
| Punjab | 50, 362 | 27, 704, 236 | 550 |
| Rajasthan | 3, 42, 239 | 68, 621, 012 | 201 |
| Sikkim | 7, 096 | 6, 07, 688 | 86 |
| Tamil Nadu | 1, 30, 058 | 72, 138, 958 | 555 |
| Tripura | 10, 486 | 3, 671, 032 | 350 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 2, 40, 928 | 1, 99, 581, 520 | 828 |
| Uttarakhand | 53, 483 | 10, 116, 752 | 189 |
| West Bengal | 88, 752 | 91, 347, 736 | 1, 030 |
The below mentioned table provides us information regarding the Union Territory wise details of India's area and population:
| Name of Union Territory | Area in sq. km. | Population (As per Census 2011) | Density per sq. km. |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 8, 249 | 3, 79, 944 | 119 |
| Chandigarh | 114 | 1, 054, 686 | 23, 970 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 491 | 3, 42, 853 | 1, 808 |
| Daman and Diu | 112 | 2, 42, 911 | 5, 623 |
| Delhi | 11, 297 | 16, 753, 235 | 29, 258 |
| Lakshadweep | 32 | 64, 429 | 5, 196 |
| Puducherry | 479 | 1, 244, 464 | 6, 730 |
Religious demography of India
The country of India has got the largest portion of Hindus, Zoroastrians, Jains, Sikhs and Bah�'�s residing in the world. The nation even houses world's third-biggest Muslim population. Though the prevalence of religious communities vary from one state or Union Territory to another, still some places are known for being home to any particular religious group. These groups are as follows:
- States or Union Territories with majority of Muslim population: Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir.
- States or Union Territories with majority of Christian population: Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
- States or Union Territories with majority of Sikh population: Punjab.
| Composition | Hindus | Muslims | Christians | Sikhs | Buddhist | Jains | Others (Jews, Baha'is and Parsis) |
| % total of population 2001 | 80.50 % | 13.40 % | 2.30 % | 1.90 % | 0.80 % | 0.40 % | 0.60 % |
| 10 Yr Growth�% (Est. ' 91 � ' 01) | 20.30 % | 29.50 % | 22.60 % | 18.20 % | 24.50 % | 26.00 % | 103.10 % |
| Child sex ratio (0�6 yrs) | 925 | 950 | 964 | 786 | 942 | 870 | 976 |
| Urban sex ratio | 922 | 907 | 1, 026 | 886 | 944 | 941 | 966 |
| Rural sex ratio | 944 | 953 | 1, 001 | 895 | 958 | 937 | 995 |
| Total sex ratio (Avg. 944) | 935 | 940 | 1, 009 | 895 | 955 | 940 | 1, 000 |
| Literacy rate (71.7 % for Age 7 & above) | 75.5 % | 60 % | 90.3 % | 70.4 % | 73 % | 95 % | 50 % |
| Work Participation Rate | 40.4 % | 31.3 % | 39.7 % | 37.7 % | 40.6 % | 32.9 % | 48.4 % |
Linguistic Demography of India
Hindi, being the national language of the country, most the Indians speaks Hindi language. However, the dialects and languages spoken in the nation again vary from place to place and community to community. India has got a total of 1, 652 dialects and languages. Census of India, 2001 shows the following details about the linguistic demography of the Indian Republic:
| Language | Speakers | Percentage |
| Assamese | 13, 168, 484 | 1.28 % |
| Bengali | 83, 369, 769 | 8.11 % |
| Bhili/Bhilodi | 9, 582, 957 | 0.93 % |
| Bodo | 1, 350, 478 | 0.13 % |
| Dogri | 2, 282, 589 | 0.22 % |
| Gondi | 2, 713, 790 | 0.26 % |
| Gujarati | 46, 091, 617 | 4.48 % |
| Hindi dialects | 4, 22, 048, 642 | 41.03 % |
| Ho | 1, 042, 724 | 0.10 % |
| Kannada | 37, 924, 011 | 3.69 % |
| Kashmiri | 5, 527, 698 | 0.54 % |
| Khandeshi | 2, 075, 258 | 0.20 % |
| Khasi | 1, 128, 575 | 0.11 % |
| Konkani | 2, 489, 015 | 0.24 % |
| Kurukh | 1, 751, 489 | 0.17 % |
| Maithili | 12, 179, 122 | 1.18 % |
| Malayalam | 33, 066, 392 | 3.21 % |
| Marathi | 71, 936, 894 | 6.99 % |
| Manipuri (Meitei) | 1, 466, 705 | 0.14 % |
| Mundari | 1, 061, 352 | 0.11 % |
| Nepali | 2, 871, 749 | 0.28 % |
| Odia | 33, 017, 446 | 3.21 % |
| Punjabi | 29, 102, 477 | 2.83 % |
| Santali | 6, 469, 600 | 0.63 % |
| Sindhi | 2, 535, 485 | 0.25 % |
| Tamil | 60, 793, 814 | 5.91 % |
| Telugu | 74, 002, 856 | 7.19 % |
| Tulu | 1, 722, 768 | 0.17 % |
| Urdu | 51, 536, 111 | 5.01 % |
Last Updated on 09 September 2011
