The Population of India is growing at a very rapid rate according to census 2001.

As per the latest survey carried out on March 1, 2001, the total population of India was recorded to be 1,027,015,247 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.

Current Population of India - India, with 1,210,193,422 (1.21 billion) people is the second most populous country in the world, while China is on the top with over 1,350,044,605 (1.35 billion) people. The figures show that India represents almost 17.31% of the world's population, which means one out of six people on this planet live in India. Although, the crown of the world's most populous country is on China's head for decades, India is all set to take the numerouno position by 2030. With the population growth rate at 1.58%, India is predicted to have more than 1.53 billion people by the end of 2030. More than 50% of India's current population is below the age of 25 and over 65% below the age of 35. About 72.2% of the population lives in some 638,000 villages and the rest 27.8% in about 5,480 towns and urban agglomerations. The birth rate (child births per 1,000 people per year) is 22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) while death rate (deaths per 1000 individuals per year) is 6.4 deaths/1,000 population. Fertility rate is 2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008) and Infant mortality rate is 30.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 estimated). India has the largest illiterate population in the world. The literacy rate of India as per 2001 Population Census is 65.38%, with male literacy rate at 75.96% and female at 54.28%. Kerala has the highest literacy rate at 90.86%, Mizoram (88.80%) is on the second position and Lakshadweep (86.66%) is on third. Every year, India adds more people than any other nation in the world, and in fact the individual population of some of its states is equal to the total population of many countries. For example, Population of Uttar Pradesh (state in India) almost equals to the population of Brazil. It, as per 2001 Population Census of India, has 190 million people and the growth rate is 16.16%. The population of the second most populous state Maharashtra, which has a growth rate of 9.42%, is equal to that of Mexico's population. Bihar, with 8.07%, is the third most populous state in India and its population is more

than Germany's. West Bengal with 7.79% growth rate, Andhra Pradesh (7.41%) and Tamil Nadu (6.07%) are at fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively. The sex ratio of India stands at 933. Kerala with 1058 females per 1000 males is the state with the highest female sex ratio. Pondicherry (1001) is second, while Chhatisgarh (990) and Tamil Nadu (986) are at third and fourth places respectively. Haryana with 861 has the lowest female sex ratio. Census is the basis for reviewing the country's progress in the past decade, monitoring the on-going schemes of the Government and most importantly, plan for the future. That is why the slogan of Census 2011 is "Our Census, Our Future".

CENSUS OF INDIA - FIGURES AT A GLANCE:

Persons

1,21,01,93,422

POPULATION

Males

62,37,24,248

Females

58,64,69,174

DECADAL Absolute POPULATION GROWTH 2001-2011 Percentage

Persons

18,14,55,986

17.64

Males

9,15,01,158

17.19

Females

8,99,54,828

18.12

DENSITY OF POPULATION (per sq. km.)

382

SEX RATIO (females per 1000 males)

940

Size, Growth Rate and Distribution of Population

Population, 2001 (States/Union Territories)

Population, 2011 (States/Union Territories)

ABSOLUTE NUMBERS

The population of India at 0:00 hours of 1st March, 2011, as per the provisional population totals of Census 2011, is 1,210,193,422 compared to a total of 1,028,737,436 in 2001. In absolute terms, the population of India has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011. The absolute addition to the population during the decade 2001-2011 is slightly lower than the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world!

INDIA IN WORLD POPULATION The estimated global population in 2010 was 6908.7 million. The population of the ten most populous countries of the world are given in Statement 1. Their relative share in the global population is shown in Figure 1. Population of these 10 countries have all grown over the last decade, except in Russian Federation, which has declined. At present, these ten countries account for nearly three-fifth of the world population. The three most populous ones, namely, China, India and USA, together account for four of every ten persons of the world. At present, a little more than one out of every six persons in the world is from India.

Population growth rate, India and selected countries: 2000-2010

Growth of Population, 2001-2011 (States/Union Territories)

India Population (in millions): 1901-2011

One of the important features of the present decade is that, 2001-2011 is the first decade (with the exception of 1911-1921) which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade. This implies that as a result of the combination of population momentum and somewhat impeded fertility, although India continues to grow in size, its pace of net addition is on the decrease. In absolute terms, the population of India has increased by about 181 million during the decade 2001-2011. Although, the net addition in population during each decade has increased consistently, the changes in net addition has shown a steady declining trend over the decades starting from 1961. While 27.9 million more people were added in the decade 1981-1991 than in 1971-1981, this number declined to 19.2 million for the decades

between 1981-1991 and 1991-2001. The provisional results of 2011 shows that between 2001 and 2011, the net addition is less than that of the previous decade by 0.86 million. POPULATION GROWTH RATES It is significant that the percentage decadal growth during 2001-2011 has registered the sharpest decline since independence. It declined from 23. 87 percent for 1981-1991 to 21.54 percent for the period 1991-2001, a decrease of 2.33 percentage point. For 2001-2011, this decadal growth has become 17.64 percent, a further decrease of 3.90 percentage points. Similarly, the average exponential growth rate for 2001-2011 has declined to 1.64 percent per annum from 1.97 percent per annum during 1991-2001. The average annual exponential growth rate during 1981-1991 was 2.16. Figure 4 depicts the percentage decadal growth rate of independent India.
Percentage decadal growth rates of population, India: 1951-1961 to 2001-2011

POPULATION: STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES Uttar Pradesh continues to be the most populous State in the country with almost 200 million people living here, which is more than the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world. The combined population of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra (the second most populous State), at 312 million, is substantially greater than the population of USA, the third most populous country of the world. Twenty States and Union Territories now have a population of over ten million. On the other extreme, there are five States and Union Territories in the country that are yet to reach the one million mark. Statement 3 and Figure 5 show the relative share of population of the States and Union Territories to the total population of India as per Census 2011. The statement also provides the ranking of these States and Union Territories by Population size in 2001 and 2011. While Uttar Pradesh (199.6 million), Maharashtra (112.4 million), Bihar (103.8 million), West Bengal (91.3 million) and Andhra Pradesh (84.7 million) have all held on to the top five slots in terms of their ranking in 2011 as

compared to 2001, Madhya Pradesh (72.6 million), which has moved on to take the sixth position from its seventh position, pushing Tamil Nadu (72.1 million) now to the seventh spot. A little more than six of every ten Indians live in one of these seven States.
Population share of States and Union Territories, India: 2011

Ranking of States and Union Territories by population: 2001 and 2011

Rank In India/State/Union Territory# 2011 Population 2011 Percent to total population of India Rank in 2001

2011

2001

INDIA

1,210,193,422

100

100

Uttar Pradesh

199,581,477

16.49

16.16

Maharashtra

112,372,972

9.29

9.42

Bihar

103,804,637

8.58

8.07

West Bengal

91,347,736

7.55

7.79

Andhra Pradesh

84,665,533

7.00

7.41

Madhya Pradesh

72,597,565

6.00

5.87

Tamil Nadu

72,138,958

5.96

6.07

Rajasthan

68,621,012

5.67

5.49

Karnataka

61,130,704

5.05

5.14

10

Gujarat

60,383,628

4.99

4.93

10

11

Orissa

41,947,358

3.47

3.58

11

12

Kerala

33,387,677

2.76

3.10

12

13

Jharkhand

32,966,238

2.72

2.62

13

14

Assam

31,169,272

2.58

2.59

14

15

Punjab

27,704,236

2.29

2.37

15

16

Chhattisgarh

25,540,196

2.11

2.03

17

17

Haryana

25,353,081

2.09

2.06

16

18

NCT of Delhi#

16,753,235

1.38

1.35

18

19

Jammu & Kashmir

12,548,926

1.04

0.99

19

20

Uttarakhand

10,116,752

0.84

0.83

20

21

Himachal Pradesh

6,856,509

0.57

0.59

21

22

Tripura

3,671,032

0.30

0.31

22

23

Meghalaya

2,964,007

0.24

0.23

23

24

Manipur

2,721,756

0.22

0.22

24

25

Nagaland

1,980,602

0.16

0.19

25

26

Goa

1,457,723

0.12

0.13

26

27

Arunachal Pradesh

1,382,611

0.11

0.11

27

28

Puducherry#

1,244,464

0.10

0.09

28

29

Mizoram

1,091,014

0.09

0.09

30

30

Chandigarh#

1,054,686

0.09

0.09

29

31

Sikkim

607,688

0.05

0.05

31

32

Andaman & Nicobar Islands#

379,944

0.03

0.03

32

33

Dadra & Nagar Haveli#

342,853

0.03

0.03

33

34

Daman & Diu#

242,911

0.02

0.02

34

35

Lakshadweep#

64,429

0.01

0.01

35

POPULATION GROWTH: ALL STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES Exactly half of the twenty most populous States, each with a population of ten million or more, have added lesser persons in the decade 2001-2011 compared to the previous one. Had these ten States added the same number of persons during 2001-2011 as they did in the previous decade, everything else remaining the same, India would have added another 9.7 million more persons during this decade. The phenomenon of low growth have started to spread beyond the boundaries of the Southern States during 2001-11, where in addition to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the South, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the North, West Bengal and Orissa in the East, and Maharashtra in the West have registered a growth rate between eleven to sixteen percent in 2001-2011 over the previous decade. The Provisional Population Totals of Census 2001 predicted this: It is also obvious that in the contiguous four major South Indian States fertility decline appears to have well established, stretching to neighbouring Maharashtra on the west and Orissa and West Bengal in the east, whereas in other regions it is rather scattered. Among the smaller States and Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu registered very high growth rates of more than fifty three percentage points. In contrast, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Goa have registered single digit decadal growth. Nagaland is the only State which has registered a small negative growth during 2001-2011 after very high growths in all the previous decades. The percentage decadal growth of population in the inter-Censal period 2001-2011, among the more populous States and Union Territories, varied from a low of 4.86 in Kerala to a very high 25.07 in Bihar. Jammu & Kashmir with 23.71 percent, Chhattisgarh with 22.59 and Jharkhand with 22.34 also registered very high growth rates. The percentage decadal growth has declined during the census decade 2001 -2011 as compared to the previous census decade in all the States and Union Territories except Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which together constitute about 8.17 percent of Indias population. A decline of more than five percentage points in decadal growth rate from the previous census decade was recorded for fifteen States and Union Territories, namely, for the States Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Goa, and also for the Union Territories of Delhi, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These fifteen States and Union Territories together account for more than thirty nine per cent of the countrys population. Among the larger States and Union Territories, Delhi has registered the sharpest drop of twenty six percentage points during the said period followed by Haryana (8.53), Rajasthan (6.97) and Maharashtra (6.74). The remaining seventeen States and Union Territories have shown a decline of one to five percentage points in their growth rates during 2001-2011 as compared to 1991-2001. These seventeen States and Union Territories

together account for more than fifty two per cent of total population. Thus more than nine out of every ten Indians live in States and Union Territories which have shown a declining trend in population growth. It brings out the major shift in distribution of States and Union Territories by the ranges of growth rates between 1991-2001 and 2001-2011. The number of States and Union Territories with percentage decadal growth below eighteen percent, the current National average, has increased substantially from ten in 1991-2001 to seventeen in the decade 2001-2011, whereas the number of States/Union Territories with percentage decadal growth more than eighteen percent has reduced significantly from twenty five to eighteen. The sum of the population of the States and Union Territories that registered less than the national growth rate has shown an impressive increase from about thirty four percent in 2001 to forty seven percent in 2011. Twelve States and Union Territories, with a combined population amounting to a little more than twenty four percent of India has grown by less than fifteen percent during 2001-2011. The number of such States and Union Territories was only three during 1991-2001.

Decadal growth rate of population, India, States and Union Territories: 2001-2011

Population, percentage decadal growth and average annual exponential growth rates 1991 -2001 and 2001-2011

Sex ratio of selected countries

Trends of sex ratio in ten most populous countries: 2001 2011

TRENDS IN SEX RATIO IN INDIA - AN OVER VIEW The sex ratio in India has been historically negative or in other words, unfavourable to females. A look at the Figure 18 reveals that in the pre-independence period, the sex ratio declined consistently up to 1951 when it rose marginally (Statement-12). In the post-independence period, the trend continued and the sex ratio slipped down for two consecutive decades after 1951 to reach 930 in 1971. During 1961-71 a steep fall of 11 points was seen in the sex ratio.
Sex ratio in India: 1901-2011

Sex ratio, India: 1901-2011

Sex Ratio, 2001 (States/Union Territories)

Sex Ratio, 2011 (States/Union Territories)

Sex ratio in States and Union Territories: 2011