Religious Practices in India through figures

The number count of people practicing various religions in India is being known through various population censuses and for the 2001; the figures are given as below:

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION BY RELIGION

Religion	Number	Percentage
All Religious Communities	1028610328	100.0
Hindus	827578868	80.5
Muslims	138188240	13.4
Chritians	24080016	2.3
Sikhs	19215730	1.9
Buddhists	7955207	0.8
Jains	4225053	0.4
Others	6639626	0.6
Religion Not Stated	727588	0.1

Hinduism is the largest religious group in India; its more than 1 billion adherents (2001) compose 80.5% of the population.  Hindus comprise a majority in most of the states in India and are quite in good number also in Manipur (46%), Arunachal Pradesh (35%), Jammu and Kashmir (30%), Punjab (37%) and Meghalaya (13%).  They are in minority in the states/UT of Nagaland (8%), Mizoram (4%) and Lakshadweep (4%) in the year 2001, The latter states/UTs from Manipur to Lakshadweep are having majority of other minority religions,

Islam is the largest minority religion in India. According to the 2001 census, India is home to 138 million Muslims, the world's third-largest Muslim population after those in Indonesia (210 million) and Pakistan (166 million). Muslims compose 13.4% of the Indian population. Muslims are a majority in the state/UT Jammu and Kashmir (67%) and Lakshadweep (95%), and live in high concentrations in Assam (31%), Kerala (25%), West Bengal (25%), Uttar Pradesh (18.5%), Bihar (17%), Jharkhand (14%), Delhi (12%), Uttaranchal (12%), Karnataka (12%) and Maharashtra (11%).

Christianity is the third largest religion of India, making up 2.3% of the population. Christians comprise a majority in Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya and have significant populations in Manipur, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

As of 2001, there were 19.2 million Sikhs in India. Punjab is the spiritual home of Sikhs, and is the only state in India where Sikhs form a majority. There are also significant populations of Sikhs in neighboring Chandigarh (16%) Delhi (4%) and Haryana (5.5%). 

None of other religions form majority in any state.  Only Buddhists are in high concentrations in Sikkim (28%) and Arunachal Pradesh (13%) and other many ethnic faiths etc. are forming some concentration in Arunachal Pradesh (31%).

The proportions of various major religious groups in India over the years 1951-2011 are given as below:

Religious Group	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011
Hinduism	84.10%	83.45%	82.73%	82.30%	81.53%	80.46%	78.35%
Islam	9.80%	10.69%	11.21%	11.75%	12.61%	13.43%	14.88%
Christianity	2.30%	2.44%	2.60%	2.44%	2.32%	2.34%	n/a
Sikhism	1.79%	1.79%	1.89%	1.92%	1.94%	1.87%	n/a
Buddhism	0.74%	0.74%	0.70%	0.70%	0.77%	0.77%	n/a
Jainism	0.46%	0.46%	0.48%	0.47%	0.40%	0.41%	n/a
Ethnic faiths, others	0.43%	0.43%	0.41%	0.42%	0.44%	0.72%	n/a
Zoroastrianism	0.13%	0.09%	0.09%	0.09%	0.08%	0.06%	n/a

It could be seen that in India the growth of Islam is more than most of other religions over the various decades. Christianity, Sikhism and Buddhism are maintaining their proportions or one may say that they have increased very marginally as compared to 1951/1961. Over the years, Hinduism is loosing its shine decade after decade.