2001 census of India

The 2001 census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871.^[1]

14th census of India
← 1991 2001 (2001) 2011 →
General information
Country	India
Results
Total population	1,028,737,436 (21.5%)
Most populous ​state	Uttar Pradesh (166,053,600)
Least populous ​state	Sikkim (541,902)

The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females.^[2] The total population increased by 182,310,397, 21.5% more than the 846,427,039 people counted during the 1991 census.^[2]

Religious demographics

Hindus comprise 82.75 crore (80.45%) and Muslims were 13.8 crore (13.4%) in the 2001 census.^[3][4] Census 2001 showed 108 faiths under the head "Other Religions and Persuasion" (ORP) in India.^[5] 700,000 people did not state their religion.^[6]

Population trends for major religious groups in India (2001)

Religious group	Population %
Hindu	80.45%
Muslim	13.4%
Christian	2.34%
Sikh	1.89%
Buddhist	0.74%
Animist, others	0.43%
Jain	0.46%

Language demographics

Main article: Languages of India

Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of "Hindi languages". According to 2001 census, 53.6% of Indian population know Hindi, in which 41% of them have declared Hindi as their native language or mother tongue.^[7][8][9] English is known to 12.18% Indians in the 2001 census. The number of bilingual speakers in India is 25.50 crore, which is 24.8% of the population in 2001.^[10] India (780) has the world's second highest number of languages, after Papua New Guinea (839).^[11]

First, second, and third languages by number of speakers in India (2001 census)

Language	First language speakers		Second language speakers[12]	Third language speakers[12]	Total speakers
	number [13][12]	% of total pop.[14]			number [15][12]	% of total pop.[14]
Hindi	422,048,642	41.03%	98,207,180	31,160,696	551,416,518	53.60%
English	226,449	0.02%	86,125,221	38,993,066	125,344,736	12.18%
Bengali	83,369,769	8.10%	6,637,222	1,108,088	91,115,079	8.86%
Telugu	74,002,856	7.19%	9,723,626	1,266,019	84,992,501	8.26%
Marathi	71,936,894	6.99%	9,546,414	2,701,498	84,184,806	8.18%
Tamil	60,793,814	5.91%	4,992,253	956,335	66,742,402	6.49%
Urdu	51,536,111	5.01%	6,535,489	1,007,912	59,079,512	5.74%
Kannada	37,924,011	3.69%	11,455,287	1,396,428	50,775,726	4.94%
Gujarati	46,091,617	4.48%	3,476,355	703,989	50,271,961	4.89%
Odia	33,017,446	3.21%	3,272,151	319,525	36,609,122	3.56%
Malayalam	33,066,392	3.21%	499,188	195,885	33,761,465	3.28%
Sanskrit	14,135	<0.01%	1,234,931	3,742,223	4,991,289	0.49%

Graphical summaries

• 
  Overview of 2001 population, separated by gender and age bracket.
• 
  2001 overview based on religious affiliation and language.

See also

• 1991 census of India
• 2011 census of India
• Demographics of India

References

1. Vijayanunni, M. (26–29 August 1998). "Planning for the 2001 Census of India based on the 1991 Census" (PDF). 18th Population Census Conference. Honolulu, Hawaii, US: Association of National Census and Statistics Directors of America, Asia, and the Pacific. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
2. "Home/Census Data 2001/India at a glance". New Delhi: Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, Ministry of Home Affairs. 2001. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
3. Abantika Ghosh, Vijaita Singh (24 January 2015). "Census: Hindu share dips below 80%, Muslim share grows but slower". Indian Express.
4. D’Souza, Dilip (16 December 2014). "With current trends, it will take 220 years for India's Muslim population to equal Hindu numbers". Scroll.in.
5. "Fewer minor faiths in India now, finds Census; number of their adherents up". 1 August 2016.
6. "Indian rationalism, Charvaka to Narendra Dabholkar". 21 August 2018.
7. D, John Samuel Raja (24 July 2014). "These four charts break down India's complex relationship with Hindi". Quartz.
8. "Nearly 60% of Indians speak a language other than Hindi | India News – Times of India". The Times of India. 21 June 2014.
9. "Census of India: Comparative speaker's strength of Scheduled Languages-1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001". www.censusindia.gov.in.
10. "Hindi migrants speaking Marathi rise to 60 lakh | Mumbai News – Times of India". The Times of India. 4 October 2018.
11. Seetharaman, G. (13 August 2017). "Seven decades after Independence, many small languages in India face extinction threat". The Economic Times.
12. S, Rukmini (24 November 2014). "Sanskrit and English: there's no competition". The Hindu.
13. ORGI. "Census of India: Comparative speaker's strength of Scheduled Languages-1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001".
14. "Census of India : India at a glance / Population". www.censusindia.gov.in.
15. "Indiaspeak: English is our 2nd language". The Times of India. 14 March 2010.

External links

• Official website