Demographics
With an estimated population of 1.12 billion,[8] India is the world's second most populous country. 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), Bangalore, and Hyderabad.[49]
India is the second most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.[49] 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,[97] is the official language of India.[98] English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language.'[6] The constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[99]
Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), JainsJews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.[100] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[101] (0.4%),
India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).[8] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%);[102] Bihar has the lowest (47%).[103] The national gender 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.[8]
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