India Demographics

India is the second-most populous country in the world with an estimated 1.1 billion people in 2006.[9] Language, caste and religion are determinants of social and political organisation within its diverse population. Although 81.5% of the people are Hindus, India is also home to the second-largest population of Muslims in the world (12.2%), after Indonesia.

Other religious groups include Sikhs (2%), Christians (2.33%), Buddhists (0.76%), Jains (0.40%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Ahmadis, and Bahá'ís.[9] The national average literacy rate is 64.4%(with males-75.6% and females-54.2%). The state of Kerala leads the country with a literacy rate of approximately 94%.

Unlike the USA, UK, and Australian Censuses, the national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India.[10]

India's biggest metropolitan agglomerations are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore and Hyderabad. The national sex ratio is 933 females per 1,000 males and median age is 24.66. India's birth rate is 22.32 births per 1,000.[9] The total fertility rate (TFR) for India is above the world average, however the growth rate is showing signs of decrease in South India.

India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. The Indian constitution recognises 23 official languages.[11] Hindi and English are used by the Union Government of India for official purposes, wherein Hindi has a de jure priority. Sanskrit and Tamil enjoy classical language status in India [12]. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.

India Demographics