Introduction

A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species,

which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of
interbreeding.
In ecology, the population of a certain species in a certain area is estimated using
the Lincoln Index. The area that is used to define a sexual population is defined as
the area where inter-breeding is potentially possible between any pair within the
area. The probability of interbreeding is greater than the probability of crossbreeding with individuals from other areas. Under normal conditions, breeding is
substantially more common within the area than across the border.[3]

In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans. Demography is a social

science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers
mainly to human population.

World human population[edit]

Main article: World population
As of today's date, the world population is estimated by the United States Census
Bureau to be 7.304 billion.[8] The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion
number was surpassed on 12 March 2012. According to a separate estimate by the
United Nations, Earths population exceeded seven billion in October 2011, a
milestone that offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities to all of
humanity, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.[9]

According to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world
population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population
Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which world
population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population
reached 5 billion in 1987, and 6 years after world population reached 5.5 billion in
1993. The population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest
million,[10] so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates.[11]

Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have
probably been born in the last 2000 years.

Need For Study

Population studies is broadly defined as the scientific study of human populations.
Major areas studied include broad population dynamics; fertility and family
dynamics; health, aging, and mortality; and human capital and labor markets.
Researchers in population studies also focus on methodology. Population studies is
an interdisciplinary area of study; scholars from demography, epidemiology,
sociology, economics, anthropology, and various other disciplines study
populations. Various associations and centers exist throughout the United States
and elsewhere. The Population Association of America, established in 1930, is a
scientific, professional organization established to promote the improvement,
advancement, and progress through research of problems related to human
populations. Many university-based population studies centers are located
throughout the United States, such as the University of Michigans Population

Studies Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills Carolina
Population Center.
POPULATION DYNAMICS
Among population researchers, demographers are concerned with the empirical
study of population dynamics; that is, demographers study population determinants
and consequences including size, composition, how populations change over time,
and the processes influencing those changes. Demographers deal with the
collection, presentation, and analysis of data relating to the basic life-cycle events
and experiences of people: birth, marriage, divorce, household and family
formation, migration, employment, aging, and death. They also examine
compositions of populations by sex, age, race, ethnicity, occupation, education,
religion, marital status, and living arrangements. Demographers further assess the
distribution of populations by region, country, province or state, urban or rural
area, and by neighborhood. Most demographic data come from population
censuses, vital registration systems, national registers, and surveys.
Demographers use a variety of counts, rates, ratios, and other statistics to measure
fertility, mortality, migration, and other population dynamics. The crude birth rate
is the annual number of live births per thousand people; the general fertility rate is
the annual number of live births per thousand women of childbearing age. The
crude death rate is the total number of deaths per thousand people; the mortality
rate is the number of deaths in some population, scaled to the size of that
population, per unit of time. The morbidity rate refers to the number of people who
have a disease compared to the total number of people in a population. The infant
mortality rate is the annual number of deaths of children less than one year old per
thousand live births. Life expectancy is defined as the number of years that an

individual at a given age can expect to live at present mortality levels. For
example, in 2001 the average life expectancy at birth in the United States was
seventy-seven years.
The crude death rate, applied to a whole population, can be misleading. For
example, the number of deaths per thousand people can be higher for developed
nations than for less-developed countries, despite standards of health being better
in developed countries. This is because developed countries have relatively older
people, who are more likely to die in a given year, so that the overall mortality rate
can be higher even if the mortality rate at any given age is lower. A more complete
picture of mortality and life expectancy is given by a life table that summarizes
mortality separately at each age. A life table is a table that shows, for a given
person at a given age, what the probability is that the person dies before his or her
next birthday. Life tables are usually constructed separately for men and for
women because of their different mortality rates. Other characteristics can also be
used to distinguish different risks, such as health behaviors and socioeconomic
position.
Objectives
The following are the objectives of population education.

1. To provide knowledge and understanding of the prevailing situation.

2. Create awareness among the students about population matters, environment,
and supply and demand of essential commodities.
3. Provide necessary skill to evaluate the impact and consequence of population
growth on society.

4. To give the knowledge of population policy and population measures.

5. To provide the knowledge of causes of population growth and government's
efforts to check it.
6. To develop awareness on the population dynamics.
7. To provide the knowledge of manpower management and resource development.
8. To enable students to know the merit of small family.
9. To known the causes of urbanization and its related problems.
10. To know about the causes of deforestation and ecological imbalance.
Observation
Population of India - As per the latest survey carried out on March, 2011, the total
population of India was recorded to be 1,210,193,422 persons thus making it the
second largest populated country in the world. India follows China in this race of
population, the former being at number one.
In July 2007, this mark had increased by a considerable number and the last
recorded data had the figure of 1,129,866,154, under the Indian Population head.
Rising by a considerable percentage of about 21.34%, the population of India
observed a sound rise in the sex ratio by coming up to 933 from 927 as at the 1991
Census that recorded a total population of 1,027,015,247 persons comprising of
531,277,078 males and 495,738,169 females.

In terms of the population dynamics, India is very strange for it supports a total of
15% of the global population at a mere 2.4% of the world's land area. The country

has about 70% of its population residing in rural areas centered in about 550,000
villages.
Population of India
But one of the most remarkable things about Indians is that they have retained their
traditions and values irrespective of the attacks of various invaders that have no
doubt left indelible prints on the land. A rare unity in diversity is what one can
observe in this diverse country with 18 official languages.
An incredible racial and cultural fusion of religion, caste and language is what can
be observed in India. The only country with almost 79.8% of the Hindus and about
180 million Muslims, India is also home to a considerable chunk of Christians,
Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis also. The nation has preserved it rich culture
and traditions which are vastly displayed in the day to day life of the Indians. Also,
home to a wide variety of languages, Hindi is widely spoken all over India.
Description
Studies & research on Indias population
Indias population has crossed 1.21 billion as per Census of 2011. The ratio of girls
to boys is 914 girls per 1,000 boys. [for children 6 and younger]. The ratio was 927
girls to 1,000 boys in the previous census.
The population in India on 1st March 2001 stood at 1,027,015,247 persons. With
this, India became only the second country in the world after China to cross the
one billion mark. ( India is the 2nd most populated country in the world)
Indias estimated population was expected to be 1,129,866,154, in July 2007.

Indias population rose by 21.34 % between 1991 2001. The sex ratio (i.e.,
number of females per thousand males) of population was 933, rising from 927 as
at the 1991 Census. Total literacy rate in India was returned as 65.38%.
Persons

1,027,015,247

Males

531,277,078

Females

495,738,169

Structure and Dynamics

Population of India . Although India occupies only 2.4% of the worlds land area, it
supports over 15% of the worlds population. Only China has a larger population.
Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. About 70% of the people
live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and
cities. Over thousands of years of its history, India has been invaded from the
Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian people and
culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial
and cultural synthesis.
Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political
organization in India today. The government has recognized 18 languages as
official; Hindi is the most widely spoken.

Although 83% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 120
million Muslimsone of the worlds largest Muslim populations. The population
also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis.

The caste system reflects Indian occupational and religiously defined hierarchies.
Traditionally, there are four broad categories of castes (varnas), including a
category of outcastes, earlier called untouchables but now commonly referred to
as dalits.

Within these broad categories there are thousands of castes and subcastes , whose
relative status varies from region to region.

Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the

lower end of the class structure, the caste system remains an important source of
social identification for most

Hindus and a potent factor in the political life of the country.

India Population : The 1991 final census count gave India a total population of
846,302,688. However, estimates of Indias population vary widely. According to
the Population Division of the United Nations Department of International
Economic and Social Affairs, the population had already reached 866 million in
1991. The Population Division of the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) projected 896.5 million by mid1993 with a 1.9 percent annual growth rate. The United States Bureau of the
Census, assuming an annual population growth rate of 1.8 percent, put Indias

population in July 1995 at 936,545,814. These higher projections merit attention in

light of the fact that the Planning Commission had estimated a figure of 844
million for 1991 while preparing the Eighth Five-Year Plan (FY 1992-96; see
Population Projections, this ch.).

India accounts for some 2.4 percent of the worlds landmass but is home to about
16 percent of the global population. The magnitude of the annual increase in
population can be seen in the fact that India adds almost the total population of
Australia or Sri Lanka every year. A 1992 study of Indias population notes that
India has more people than all of Africa and also more than North America and
South America together. Between 1947 and 1991, Indias population more than
doubled.

Throughout the twentieth century, India has been in the midst of a demographic
transition. At the beginning of the century, endemic disease, periodic epidemics,
and famines kept the death rate high enough to balance out the high birth rate.
Between 1911 and 1920, the birth and death rates were virtually equalabout fortyeight births and forty-eight deaths per 1,000 population. The increasing impact of
curative and preventive medicine (especially mass inoculations) brought a steady
decline in the death rate. By the mid-1990s, the estimated birth rate had fallen to
twenty-eight per 1,000, and the estimated death rate had fallen to ten per 1,000.
Clearly, the future configuration of Indias population (indeed the future of India
itself) depends on what happens to the birth rate (see fig. 8). Even the most
optimistic projections do not suggest that the birth rate could drop below twenty

per 1,000 before the year 2000. Indias population is likely to exceed the 1 billion
mark before the 2001 census.

The upward population in India spiral began in the 1920s and is reflected in
intercensal growth increments. South Asias population increased roughly 5
percent between 1901 and 1911 and actually declined slightly in the next decade.
Population increased some 10 percent in the period from 1921 to 1931 and 13 to 14
percent in the 1930s and 1940s. Between 1951 and 1961, the population rose 21.5
percent. Between 1961 and 1971, the countrys population increased by 24.8
percent. Thereafter a slight slowing of the increase was experienced: from 1971 to
1981, the population increased by 24.7 percent, and from 1981 to 1991, by 23.9
percent (see table 3, Appendix).

Population in India density has risen concomitantly with the massive increases in
population. In 1901 India counted some seventy-seven persons per square
kilometer; in 1981 there were 216 persons per square kilometer; by 1991 there
were 267 persons per square kilometerup almost 25 percent from the 1981
population density (see table 4, Appendix). Indias average population density is
higher than that of any other nation of comparable size. The highest densities are
not only in heavily urbanized regions but also in areas that are mostly agricultural.

conclusion
The Census of India 2001, has admittedly thrown up important statistics
concerning the population of the country first and foremost is our population
crossing the one billion (or100 crore) mark an asset in some sense and an are of
concern in many other ways. The pace of population growth saw a slowing down
during 1991-2001. Number of persons living in urban areas also rose to 286
million in 2001 census constituting 27.8% of the population.
Next important highlight of one is to choose is the sharp decline in child sex ratio
(-06) from one census to another the child sex ratio us the proportion of girls to
1000 boys in the age group 0-6 years in 1981 the child sex ratio has been 962
which declined to 945 in 1991 census and then to 927 in 2001 census in some
states especially in Haryana Punjab Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat etc. the decline
have been sharper. This eye opening revelations on decline child sex ratio
attributed among other reasons to preference of male child in some sections of the
Indian society and consequent sex selective pre natal feticides shocked the country
forcing many to take preventive action.
On the literacy font, due mainly to the concerted efforts of the government, the
male literacy rate in country crossed 75% mark and the female literacy rate the
50% mark. A significant feature is the fall in the absolute number of female
illiterates in the country from 200 million is 1991 to 193 in 2001 census. Among
the total number of literates, proportion of those educated up to Primary level has
been about 55.6% in 2001; surprise some to learn that there were at least 2,351
villages in the country in 2001 with population above 100 persons, which do not
have even a single female literate.

In the economic front and important development as revealed by census 2001

has been the decline in the growth of workers in agricultural sector between 19912001. As India is growing and diversifying its economy, more workers find
workers in the non-agricultural sector, helping it to grow. Spread of education, in
different corners of the country, is a vehicle used by the people in pursuing
vocation in areas other than agriculture. Substantial growth in number of female
workers has been another shining example of womens empowerment.
Many such instances are revealed when one sifts through the huge information
collected in Census 2001. census organization on its part is committed to present
the results and develop new products allowing users to examine the census data
from a closer quarter than develop new products allowing users to examine the
Census data from a closer quarter than ever had been possible using computing
technology and the power of the Geographic Information System (GIS). The
results and the findings are always for the benefit of our fellow countrymen.