With an estimated population of 1.15 billion, representing 17% of the world population, India is the world's second most populous country. The last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity made by the green revolution. Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a dramatic increase in the country's urban population. India's largest cities are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent. 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. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,is the official language of the union. English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language;' it is also important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. In addition, every state and union territory has its own official languages, and the constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. While Sanskrit and Tamil have been studied as classical languages for many years, the Government of India, using its own criteria, has also accorded classical language status to Kannada and Telugu. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.
Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.[ Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.
India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males). The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%); Bihar has the lowest (47%). The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.
Cities by population Rank Core City State Pop. Rank Core City State Pop. view • talk • edit
Mumbai
Delhi
1 Mumbai Maharashtra 13,922,125 11 Jaipur Rajasthan 2,997,114
2 Delhi Delhi 12,259,230 12 Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 2,621,063
3 Bangalore Karnataka 5,310,318 13 Nagpur Maharashtra 2,359,331
4 Kolkata West Bengal 5,080,519 14 Patna Bihar 1,814,012
5 Chennai Tamil Nadu 4,590,267 15 Indore Madhya Pradesh 1,811,513
6 Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh 4,025,339 16 Bhopal Madhya Pradesh 1,742,375
7 Ahmedabad Gujarat 3,913,793 17 Thane Maharashtra 1,673,465
8 Pune Maharashtra 3,337,481 18 Ludhiana Punjab 1,662,325
9 Surat Gujarat 3,233,988 19 Agra Uttar Pradesh 1,638,209
10 Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 3,144,267 20 Pimpri Maharashtra 1,553,538
2009 estimation
No matter you are looking for Mail or Search any thi........
Markets Now
Shop Links
Easy Shopping
World Travel
Jobs and Friendship Dating
Online Shops
