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Demographics of India

This article is about the people from India. For other uses, see Indian (disambiguation).

India is the second most populated country in the world with nearly a fifth of the world's population. According to the United Nations in July 2016, the population stood at 1,326,801,576

India is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2022, surpassing China, its population reaching 1.7 billion by 2050. Thus, India is expected to become the first political entity in history to be home to more than 1.5 billion people. Its population growth rate is 1.2%, ranking 94th in the world in 2013. The Indian population reached the billion mark in 1998.

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% 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.

India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages) as well as two language isolates (the Nihali language 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.

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Map showing the population density of each district in India.
Population	1,326,801,576 (July 2016 est.)
Density	382 people per.sq.km (2011 est.)
Growth rate	1.19% (2016) (96th)
Birth rate	19.3 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Death rate	7.3 deaths/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Life expectancy	68.89 years (2009 est.)
• male	67.46 years (2009 est.)
• female	72.61 years (2009 est.)
Fertility rate	2.3 children born/woman (SRS 2013)
Infant mortality rate	40 deaths/1,000 live births (2013 est.)

Crude birth rate trends in India (per 1000 people, national average

Infant mortality rate trends in India (per 1000 births, under age 1, national average)

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History

It has been estimated that the population was about 100 million in 1600 and remained nearly static until the late 19th century. It reached 255 million according to the first census taken in 1881.

Studies of India's population since 1881 have focused on such topics as total population, birth and death rates, growth rates, geographic distribution, literacy, the rural and urban divide, cities of a million, and the three cities with populations over eight million: Delhi, Greater Mumbai (Bombay), and Kolkata (Calcutta).

Mortality rates fell in the period 1920–45, primarily due to biological immunisation. Other factors included rising incomes, better living conditions, improved nutrition, a safer and cleaner environment, and better official health policies and medical care.

Salient features

India occupies 2.41% of the world's land area but supports over 18% of the world's population. At the 2001 census 72.2% of the population lived in about 638,000 villages and the remaining 27.8% lived in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.

India's population has exceeded that of the entire continent of Africa by 200 million people. However, because Africa's population growth is nearly double that of India, it is expected to surpass both China and India by 2025.

Comparative demographics

List of states and union territories by demographics

Main article: List of States and Union Territories by demographics

Religious demographics

Main article: Religion in India

The table below summarises India's demographics (excluding the Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state due to cancellation of census results) according to religion at the 2011 census in per cent. The data is "unadjusted" (without excluding Assam and Jammu and Kashmir); the 1981 census was not conducted in Assam and the 1991 census was not conducted in Jammu and Kashmir.

 Neonatal and infant demographics

The table below represents the infant mortality rate trends in India, based on gender, over the last 15 years. In the urban areas of India, average male infant mortality rates are slightly higher than average female infant mortality rates

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Male to female sex ratio for India, based on its official census data, from 1941 through 2011.^[42] The data suggests the existence of high sex ratios before and after the arrival of ultrasound-based prenatal care and sex screening technologies in India.

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Some activists believe India's 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven – activists fear eight million female fetuses may have been aborted between 2001 and 2011. These claims are controversial. Scientists who study human sex ratios and demographic trends suggest that birth sex ratio between 1.08 and 1.12 can be because of natural factors, such as the age of mother at baby's birth, age of father at baby's birth, number of babies per couple, economic stress, endocrinological factors, etc. The 2011 census birth sex ratio in India, of 917 girls to 1000 boys, is similar to 870–930 girls to 1000 boys birth sex ratios observed in Japanese, Chinese, Cuban, Filipino and Hawaiian ethnic groups in the United States between 1940 and 2005. They are also similar to birth sex ratios below 900 girls to 1000 boys observed in mothers of different age groups and gestation periods in the United States.

Population within the age group of 0–6

Population above the age of 7

 Literacy rate

Linguistic demographics

Main article: List of languages by number of native speakers in India

41.03% of the Indians speak Hindi while the rest speak Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and a variety of other languages.

The table immediately below excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state due to cancellation of census results.

 Largest cities

Vital statistics

UN estimates

Census of India: sample registration system

 Total fertility rate map: average births per woman by states and union territories, 2012

 Total fertility rate map: average births per woman by districts, 2011

Structure of the population

Structure of the population (09.02.2011) (Census) (Includes data for the Indian-held part of Jammu and Kashmir, the final status of which has not yet been determined):

Fertility rate

From the Demographic Health Survey

Regional vital statistics

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Map showing the population density in India, per 2011 Census

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

Total population

1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est. CIA); 1,210 million (2011 census)

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

74% (age 7 and above, in 2011)
81.4% (total population, age 15–25, in 2006)

Per cent of population below 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: 65.8 years (source: UN Human Development Report, 2013)

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

The TFR (total number of children born per women) by religion in 2005-2006 was: Hindus, 2.7; Muslims, 3.1; Christians, 2.4; and Sikhs, 2.0.

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)

Scheduled castes and tribes

Scheduled castes: 16.6% (2011 census); scheduled tribes: 8.6% (2011 census)

Languages

There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these is Hindi with some 337 million, and the second largest is Bengali. 22 languages are recognised as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.

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. Note that these projections make assumptions about future fertility and death rates which may not turn out to be correct in the event. Fertility rates also vary from region to region, with some higher than the national average and some lower.

Source:

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

2020 estimate

In millions (example: 361 = 361,000,000)

Source:

Ethnic groups

See also: South Asian ethnic groups, Ethnic relations in India, Historical definitions of races in India, and Caste system in India

The national Census of India does not recognise racial or ethnic groups within India, but recognises many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India).

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.

For a list of ethnic groups in the Republic of India (as well as neighbouring countries) see ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinent.

Genetics

See also: Y-DNA haplogroups in populations of South Asia

Y-chromosome DNA

Y-Chromosome DNA Y-DNA represents the male lineage, The Indian Y-chromosome pool may be summarised as follows where haplogroups R-M420, H, R2, L and NOP comprise generally more than 80% of the total chromosomes.

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

Mitochondrial DNA

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

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

Autosomal DNA

Numerous genomic studies have been conducted in the last 15 years to seek insights into India's demographic and cultural diversity. These studies paint a complex and conflicting picture.

• In a 2003 study, Basu, Majumder et al. 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 Austroasiatic 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 Austroasiatic 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 speaking populations were possibly widespread throughout India but are regulated to South India now ; (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."
• In a later 2010 review article, Majumder affirms some of these conclusions, introduces and revises some other. The ongoing studies, concludes Majumder, suggest India has served as the major early corridor for geographical dispersal of modern humans from out-of-Africa. The archaeological and genetic traces of the earliest settlers in India has not provided any conclusive evidence. The tribal populations of India are older than the non-tribal populations. The autosomal differentiation and genetic diversity within India's caste populations at 0.04 is significantly lower than 0.14 for continental populations and 0.09 for 31 world population sets studied by Watkins et al., suggesting that while tribal populations were differentiated, the differentiation effects within India's caste population was less than previously thought. Majumder also concludes that recent studies suggest India has been a major contributor to the gene pool of southeast Asia.
• Another study covering a large sample of Indian populations allowed Watkins et al. to examine eight Indian caste groups and four endogamous south Indian tribal populations. The Indian castes data show low between-group differences, while the tribal Indian groups show relatively high between-group differentiation. This suggests that people between Indian castes were not reproductively isolated, while Indian tribal populations experienced reproductive isolation and drift. Furthermore, the genetic fixation index data shows historical genetic differentiation and segregation between Indian castes population is much smaller than those found in east Asia, Africa and other continental populations; while being similar to the genetic differentiation and segregation observed in European populations.
• In 2006, Sahoo et al. reported their analysis of genomic data on 936 Y-chromosomes representing 32 tribal and 45 caste groups from different regions of India. These scientists find that the haplogroup frequency distribution across the country, between different caste groups, was found to be predominantly driven by geographical, rather than cultural determinants. They conclude there is clear evidence for both large-scale immigration into ancient India of Sino-Tibetan speakers and language change of former Austroasiatic speakers, in the northeast Indian region.
• The genome studies conducted up until 2010 have been on relatively small population sets. Many are from just one southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana, which was part of the state until June 2014). Thus, any conclusions on demographic history of India must be interpreted with caution. A larger national genome study with demographic growth and sex ratio balances may offer further insights on the extent of genetic differentiation and segregation in India over the millenniums.