This article is about the demographic features of the population of India, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

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 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^[1] 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.^[2]

Salient features

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^[3], and more water area than any country except Canada and the United States. Indian life, therefore 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^[4] lives in about 638 thousand villages^[5] and the remaining 27.8%^[6] lives in over 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.^[7]

Census

Main article: List of states and territories of India by population

The most recent census of India was performed in 2001 for enumeration as of March 1 of that year.^[8] It was the 14th census in an unbroken series, and the 6th after independence in 1947 (with the exception that census could not 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(The first incomplete census). After this, there has been one census every decade starting in 1881(First complete census).

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.^[9] 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%.^[9]

Religious demographics

Main article: Religion in India

80.5% of the Indians are Hindus, with 13.4% of the population Muslim, making India 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, Jains and Bahá'í. Other religious groups include Christians (2.3%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), and Jews.

Religious majorities vary greatly by state. Jammu and Kashmir is the sole majority Muslim state; Nagaland is majority Christian; Punjab is mostly Sikh; Manipur is of Sanamahism.

The table below summarizes the findings of the 2001 census with regards to religion in India:

1. All figures in %.

2. Gender Ratio*: no of females/1000 males

3. Others including Bahá'ís, Jews, and Parsis.

4. Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Others after 1926 (1931 census onwards)

     α.   ^{^}  The data excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur

     β.   ^{^}  The data is "unadjusted" (without excluding Assam and Jammu and Kashmir); 1981 census was not conducted in Assam and 1991 census was not conducted in Jammu and Kashmir

Linguistic demographics

Main article: List of Indian languages by number of native speakers

40% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati,Kannada and other languages. Almost 70% of the Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Kashmiri, Bangla, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati and other languages. About one-third of the Christians speak Malayalam, one-sixth speak Tamil while the rest speak a variety of languages. In total, there are 1,652 languages and dialects spoken in India.^[18]

* Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001.
** The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results.
N - Stands for negligible.

Demographic statistics

Chart showing the Total Fertility Rate of Indian states (SRS survey 1996-98)^[20]

Total Population: 1,147.996 million (July 2008 est. CIA)^[21] 1,028.7 million (2001 Census final figures, March 1 enumeration and estimated 124,000 in areas of Manipur that could not be covered in the enumeration)

Map showing the population density of each district in India

Rural Population: 72.2%, male: 381,668,992, female: 360,948,755 (2001 Census)

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 median age of Indians is 25.1 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.)

 Map showing the literacy rate of each district in India

2025 Estimate

Table 2: Population Projections (in millions)

Source: Based on P.N. Mari Bhat, "Indian Demographic Scenario 2025", Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, Discussion Paper No. 27/2001.

Ethnic groups

Unlike the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Australian Censuses, the national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India,^[27] but recognizes many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India).

It should be noted that Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic are mainly linguistic terms and denote speakers of these linguistic groups.

For a list of ethnic groups in the Republic of India (as well as neighboring countries) see ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinent or the tree diagram above.