Demographics of India

The demographics of India are inclusive of the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census), more than a sixth of the world's population. Already containing 17.5% of the world's population, India is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025, surpassing China, its population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050.^[1][2] Its population growth rate is 1.41%, ranking 93rd in the world.

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan; and, by 2030, India's dependency ratio should be just over 0.4.^[3]

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 two language isolates (the Nihali language^[4] spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burushaski language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir).

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]

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,^[6] and more water area than any country except Russia, 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%^[7] lives in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.^[9]

Where does India stand today globally?

List of States and Union territories by demographics

Districts in India: Census 2011

^[15]

Religious demographics

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

Religious majorities vary greatly by state. The majority of states have a Hindu majority. However, Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep are Muslim majority states; Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya are Christian majority; Punjab is majority Sikh; Sikkim and Ladakh are Buddhist majority areas

The table below summarises the findings of the 2001 census with regard to religion in India:

1. All figures in %.
2. Others including Bahá'ís, Jews, and Parsis.
3. Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Others after 1926 (1931 census onwards)

Population within the age group of 0-6: Census 2011

^[15]

Population above the age of 7: Census 2011

^[15]

Literacy Rate in India: Census 2011

^[15]

Linguistic demographics

43% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and other languages. Almost 45% of the Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu 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.^[27]

Largest cities

Vital statistics

UN estimates^[31]

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Total Population

1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est. CIA)^[33] 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)

Rural Population

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

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.)

Median age

25.1 years

Population growth rate

1.548% (2009 est.)

Literacy rate

71.7% (Age 7 & above) ^[25]

Percent of the population under the poverty line

22% (2006 est.)

Unemployment Rate

7.8%

Net migration rate

−0.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
under 10 years: 1.14 male(s)/female
15–24 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
24–64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female
total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 69.89 years
male: 67.46 years
female: 72.61 years (2007 est.)

Total fertility rate

2.72 children born/woman (2009 est.), although more up to date statistics indicate that India's TFR was 2.6 in 2008 ^[34] The TFR (Total number of children born per women) according to Religion in 2001 was :

Hindus — 2.0 Muslims — 2.4 Sikhs — 2.1 Christians — 2.1 Buddhists — 2.1 Jains — 1.4 Animists and Others — 2.99 Tribals — 3.16 Scheduled Castes — 2.89

Religions

Hindu 80.5% Muslim 13.4% Christian 2.3% Sikh 1.8% Buddhists 0.8% Jains 0.4% others 0.7% unspecified 0.1% (2001 Census) ^{[35][36][37][38]}

Scheduled Castes and Tribes

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

Languages: See Languages of India and List of Indian languages by total speakers. There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these is Hindi with some 337 million (the second largest being Bangla with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.^[27][39]

Population projections

India is projected to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2030. India's population growth has raised concerns that it would lead to widespread unemployment and political instability.^[40][41]

Source:^[42]

• 2020: 1,326,093,000
• 2030: 1,460,743,000
• 2040: 1,571,715,000
• 2050: 1,656,554,000

2020 Estimate

Source:^[43]

Ethnic groups

The national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India,^[44] but recognizes many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India). Nevertheless, modern anthropologists classify Indians as belonging to one of four major ethno-racial groups, which significantly overlap because of racial admixture between populations: Caucasoids, Australoids, Mongoloids and Negritos. The Caucasoids are largely confined to the north and generally speak Indo-Aryan languages; Australoids are found in the south and generally speak Dravidian languages; Mongoloids are largely confined to the Northeastern region of the country and for the most part, speak Tibeto-Burman languages; and Negritos are found on the Andaman Islands located on the southeastern side of the country. These speak a language known simply as Great Andamanese, a linguistic isolate not related to any known language. And finally, Austro-Asiatic languages are spoken by only tribals or Adivasis, who can be of either Australoid or Mongoloid racial stock.^[45]

According to a 2009 study published by Reich et al., the modern Indian population is composed of two genetically divergent and heterogeneous populations which mixed in ancient times (about 1,200-3,500 BC), known as Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI). ASI corresponds to the Dravidian-speaking population of southern India, whereas ANI corresponds to the Indo-Aryan-speaking population of northern India.^[46][47] This demonstrates that there is a genetic basis to ethno-linguistic labels such as "Indo-Aryan" and "Dravidian".

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.

Genetics

Y-chromosome DNA

^[48]

Y-Chromosome DNA Y-DNA represents the male lineage, The Indian Y-chromosome pool may be summarized as follows where haplogroups R1a, H, R2, L & NOP comprise generally more than 80% of the total chromosomes.^[49]

• H ~ 30%
• R1a ~ 20%
• R2 ~ 15%
• L ~ 10%
• NOP ~ 10% (Excluding R)
• Other Haplogroups 15%

Mitochondrial DNA

^[50]

Mitochondrial DNA mtDNA represents the female lineage. The Indian mitochondrial DNA is primarily made up of Haplogroup M^[51]

• Haplogroup M ~ 60%
• Haplogroup UK ~ 15%
• Haplogroup N ~ 25% (Excluding UK)

Autosomal DNA

Basu et al. (2003) have concluded on the basis of results obtained from mtDNA, Y-chromosome and autosomal markers that "(1) there is an underlying unity of female lineages in India, indicating that the initial number of female settlers may have been small; (2) the tribal and the caste populations are highly differentiated; (3) the Austro-Asiatic tribals are the earliest settlers in India, providing support to one anthropological hypothesis while refuting some others; (4) a major wave of humans entered India through the northeast; (5) the Tibeto-Burman tribals share considerable genetic commonalities with the Austro-Asiatic tribals, supporting the hypothesis that they may have shared a common habitat in southern China, but the two groups of tribals can be differentiated on the basis of Y-chromosomal haplotypes; (6) the Dravidian tribals were possibly widespread throughout India before the arrival of the Indo-European-speaking nomads, but retreated to southern India to avoid dominance; (7) formation of populations by fission that resulted in founder and drift effects have left their imprints on the genetic structures of contemporary populations; (8) the upper castes show closer genetic affinities with Central Asian populations, although those of southern India are more distant than those of northern India; (9) historical gene flow into India has contributed to a considerable obliteration of genetic histories of contemporary populations so that there is at present no clear congruence of genetic and geographical or sociocultural affinities."^[52]

See also

• Ethnic groups of India
• Indian diaspora
• Racial groups of India
• Caste system in India
• Demography of Central Asia

Government:

• 2011 census of India
• National Commission on Population

Lists:

• List of most populous cities in India
• List of most populous metropolitan areas in India

Notes

References

External links

• Census of India; government 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
• 2001 maps; provides maps of social, economic and demographic data of India in 2001
• Population of India 2011 map; distribution of population amongst states and union territories
• India's Demographic Outlook: Implications and Trends