Indian Religious Communities in the Year 2011

The Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India have released the data on Population by Religious Communities for the 2011 Census. The distribution is total population by six major religious communities namely, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain besides “Other Religions and Persuasions” and “Religion not stated”.  The data are released by sex and residence up to sub-districts and towns.

Populations

Total Population in 2011 was counted as 1210.9 millions and the distribution among various religious communities is given as: Hindu 966.3 millions (79.8%); Muslim 172.2 millions (14.2%); Christian 27.8 millions (2.3%); Sikh 20.8 millions (1.7%); Buddhist 8.4 millions (0.7%); Jain 4.5 millions (0.4%), Other Religions & Persuasions (ORP) 7.9 millions (0.7%) and Religion Not Stated 2.9 millions (0.2%).

Proportions

The proportion of Hindu population to total population in 2011 has declined by 0.7%; the proportion of Sikh population has declined by 0.2% and the Buddhist population has declined by 0.1% during the decade 2001-2011. The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8%. There has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians & Jains.

Growth Rates

The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 %. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was as Hindus: 16.8%; Muslim: 24.6%; Christian: 15.5%; Sikh: 8.4%; Buddhist: 6.1% and Jain: 5.4%.

Sex Ratios

The overall sex ratio of the Indian population is 943 as per census 2011 with rural and urban areas having the same as 949 and 929 respectively (as expected rural is having less facilities to abort female children than urban families).  The overall sex ratio of the Hindus communities is 939 as per census 2011 with rural and urban areas having the same as 947 and 921 respectively (as one may expect it from the nearly 80% community in India). The case of next community (Muslims) the respective sex ratios are 951, 958 and 952 for overall, Rural and Urban residential Muslim families.  Only the Christians in India have overall, in rural and urban areas, the sex ratio of more than one thousand and are respectively are 1023, 1008 and 1046.

Urbanization

The overall urbanization ratio of the Indian population is 31.14% as per census 2011.  The Hindu communities are staying more in Rural areas (70.8%), the Muslims and the Christians are staying more in Urban areas as about 40% (both of them) stay in cities and towns, the Sikhs (more than 28% are in cities and towns) are more preferring to live in the Rural areas as Hindus, the Buddhists (about 43%) and Jains (about 80%) are preferring cities and towns to live in.