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India : The Fact File


Demographic Profile:

It covers an Area of 3,287,263 sq. km
Capital : New Delhi

Population:
India is the second largest populated country in this world after China.
Population (1995) : 935.7m
Population (1991 census) : 846.3m.
Sex Ratio: 927 females per 1000 males. (Rural: 939. Urban: 894.)
Population growth rate : 1.9% (‘90-95).
Decennial Population Growth Rate for 1981-91: 23.85%
Urban Population (1994): 26%.
Population Density : 273 persons per sq km

Literacy Rate: 52.11% (Male: 64.13% Female: 39.29%)
Birth Rate (1994, Sample Registration System): 28.7 per 1000 population.
Death Rate (1994, Sample Registration System): 9.3 per 1000 population.

Economy statistics:

Percentage of population below Poverty Line (1987-88): 29.9%.
GNP per capita US$ 350 . GNP growth rate :5.3%.
National Income (at current prices): Rs 473,246 crores (‘91-’92)
GDP at factor cost (at current prices) : Rs 707,145 crores (‘93-’94)
Gross Domestic Capital Formation (as % of GDP) : 20.4 (‘93-’94)
Gross Domestic Savings (as % of GDP) : 20.2 (‘93-’94)
Per capita NNP (at current prices): Rs 6929 (‘93-’94)
External Debt (March 1995) : US$ 95,321 m
Net Market Borrowing (‘95-’96 budget estimate) : Rs 27,087 crores
India’s Total Exports (‘94-’95) : US$ 26,223 m
India’s Total Imports (‘94-’95) : US$ 28,251 m

Confluence of Religions in India:

Though India was the place inhabited by the Hindus, after a series of invasions over centuries, India has today a large number of religions practised on the subcontinent.

Even today, Hinduism easily predominates, claiming 82 per cent of the population. But the Indian Constitution makes it clear that no religion in the republic has precedence over any other as far as the state is concerned. For more on Hinduism see the page on Religions.

In India, there are more than 75 million Muslims - ironically, about as many as there are in Pakistan.

The next minority is Christian, with 18 million followers.

There are 14 million Sikhs, whose religion launched in the 15th century, is a blend of Hindu polytheism and Islamic monotheism.

Buddhism has 5 million followers in India, where it originated in the sixth century BC.

There are also 3.5 million Jains, members of a religion that began during the same period as Buddhism and resembles it in many ways.

There are about 100,000 Parsis - followers of Zoroaster- whose religion moved eastward from Persia after its foundation in the fifth century BC.

There are a few hundred Jews, mostly in the big cities and the southwest.

MAIN RELIGIOUS GROUPS
(1991 Census)		 PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENTAGE INCREASE SINCE 1981
HINDUS (672,599,428) 82.41 22.78
MUSLIMS (95,222,853) 11.67 32.76
CHRISTIANS (18,895,917) 2.32 16.89
SIKHS (16,243,252) 1.99 25.48
BUDDHISTS (6,323,492) 0.77 35.98
JAINS (3,332,061) 0.41 4.42
OTHER RELIGIONS AND PERSUASIONS (3,131,125) 0.38 13.19
RELIGION NOT STATED (405,486) 0.05 573.46

An important minority of India’s population, constituting mainly of the tribal people, (many of them descendants of the subcontinent’s aboriginal populations), have their own religions, and most of them are animists, who venerate the mysterious forces embodied in wood or water or animal life. There are more than 400 Scheduled Tribes - so called because of their names are listed in the Constitution, which specifies that they must be protected from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. The members of these tribes number some 50 million. They are widely distributed throughout the subcontinent.

Now that you have a fair Idea of India's Vital statistics, Let's move on to the Culture!