1. 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. Already containing 17.31% of the world's population,
India is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025, surpassing China, its
population exceeding 1.6 billion people by 2050.[1][2] However, India has an astonishing
demographic dividend where more than 50% of its population is 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 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]
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Salient features
o 1.1 Religious demographics
o 1.2 Linguistic demographics
• 2 CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
• 3 Population projections
o 3.1 2020 Estimate
• 4 Ethnic groups
• 5 Genetics
o 5.1 Y-chromosome DNA
o 5.2 Mitochondrial DNA
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 External links
[edit] 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 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]

2. [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 majority 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.
The table below summarizes the findings of the 2001 census with regards 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)
Table 2: Census information for 2001*
[14 [16
Compositio Hindus [12]
Muslims[13] Christians Sikhs[15] Buddhist Jains[17] Others[18]
] ]
n

3. % total of
population 80.5% 13.4% 2.3% 1.9% 0.8% 0.4% 0.6%
2001
10-Yr
Growth %
20.3% 29.5% 22.6% 18.2% 24.5% 26.0% 103.1%
(est '91–'01)
[19]
*
Sex ratio†
935 940 1009 895 955 940 1000
(avg. 944)
Literacy rate
(71.7% for
75.5 60.0 90.3 70.4 73.0 95.0 50.0
Age 7 &
above)[20]
Work
Participation 40.4 31.3 39.7 37.7 40.6 32.9 48.4
Rate
Rural sex
944 953 1001 895 958 937 995
ratio[19]
Urban sex
922 907 1026 886 944 941 966
ratio[19]
Child sex
ratio (0–6 925 950 964 786 942 870 976
yrs)
N.B. Table excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of
Manipur state.
* The data is "unadjusted" (without excluding Assam and Indian-administered Kashmir);
1981 census was not conducted in Assam and 1991 census was not conducted in Jammu
and Kashmir.
† No. of females/1000 males.
[edit] Linguistic demographics
Main article: List of languages by number of native speakers in India
43% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil,
Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese and other languages. Almost 45% of the
Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Bangla, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil,
Gujarati, Assamese 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.[21]
Languages of India by number of native speakers as per the 2001 census[22]

4. Rank Language Speakers Percentage
1 Hindi dialects[23] 422,048,642 41.03%
2 Bengali 83,369,769 8.11%
3 Telugu 74,002,856 7.19%
4 Marathi 71,936,894 6.99%
5 Tamil 60,793,814 5.91%
6 Urdu 51,536,111 5.01%
7 Gujarati 46,091,617 4.48%
8 Kannada 37,924,011 3.69%
9 Malayalam 33,066,392 3.21%
10 Oriya 33,017,446 3.21%
11 Punjabi 29,102,477 2.83%
12 Assamese 13,168,484 1.28%
13 Maithili 12,179,122 1.18%
14 Bhili/Bhilodi 9,582,957 0.93%
15 Santali 6,469,600 0.63%
16 Kashmiri 5,527,698 0.54%
17 Nepali 2,871,749 0.28%
18 Gondi 2,713,790 0.26%
19 Sindhi 2,535,485 0.25%
20 Konkani 2,489,015 0.24%
21 Dogri 2,282,589 0.22%
22 Khandeshi 2,075,258 0.20%
23 Kurukh 1,751,489 0.17%
24 Tulu 1,722,768 0.17%
25 Meitei (Manipuri) 1,466,705* 0.14%
26 Bodo 1,350,478 0.13%
27 Khasi 1,128,575 0.112%
28 Mundari 1,061,352 0.105%
29 Ho 1,042,724 0.103%
N.B. The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the
total population of India (excluding Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of
Senapati District of Manipur state due to cancellation of census results).
* Excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul of Senapati District.
[edit] CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise
indicated.

5. Chart showing the Total Fertility Rate of Indian states (SRS survey 1996-98)[24]
Total Population
1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est. CIA)[25] 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)
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.)

6. Median age
25.1 years
Population growth rate
1.548% (2009 est.)
Birth rate
21.76 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate
6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Map showing the literacy rate of each district in India
Literacy rate
71.7% (Age 7 & above) [20]
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.)

7. Sex ratio
at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.098 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.061 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female
total population: 1.064 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate
total: 30.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) male: 34.61 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 25.17 deaths/1,000 live births
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.) 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[citation needed]
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) [26][27] .[28][29]
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.[21][30]
[edit] Population projections
[2]

8. • 2010: 1,173,108,000
• 2020: 1,326,093,000
• 2030: 1,460,743,000
• 2040: 1,571,715,000
• 2050: 1,656,554,000
[edit] 2020 Estimate
Year Under 15 15–64 65+ Total
2000 361 604 45 1010
2005 368 673 51 1093
2010 370 747 58 1175
2015 372 819 65 1256
2020 373 882 76 1331

9. Demographics of India
Population of India, 1961-2003
Population: 1,191,000,000 (2010 est) (2nd)
Growth rate: 1.548% (2009 est)
Birth rate: 22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est)
Death rate: 6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est)
Life expectancy: 69.89 years (2009 est)
–male: 67.46 years (2009 est)
–female: 72.61 years (2009 est)
Fertility rate: 2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008)
Infant mortality
30.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
rate:
Age structure:
31.1% (male 190,075,426/female
0-14 years:
172,799,553) (2009 est)
63.6% (male 381,446,079/female
15-64 years:
359,802,209) (2009 est)
5.3% (male 29,364,920/female 32,591,030)
65-over:
(2009 est)
Sex ratio:
At birth: 1.12 male(s)/female (2009)
Under 15: 1.10 male(s)/female (2009)
15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female (2009)
65-over: 0.90 male(s)/female (2009)
Nationality:
Major ethnic: See Ethnic Groups of India
Language:
Official: See Languages of India