Demographics of India

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. More than 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over thousands of years of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis.

Related Topics:
India - China - Iranian plateau - Central Asia - Arabia - Afghanistan

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Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 22 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken.

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Although more than 80% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 130 million Muslims—one of the world's largest Muslim populations.There has been a significant and disproportionate increase in muslim population in India. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Ayyavazhi, Ahmadi, Bahá'ís, and Jews.

Related Topics:
Hindu - Muslim - Christians - Sikh - Jains - Buddhists - Parsis - Ayyavazhi - Ahmadi - Bahá'ís - Jew

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The caste system reflects Indian occupational and socio-religiously defined hierarchies. Traditionally, there are four broad categories of castes (varnas), including a category of outcastes, earlier called "untouchables" but now commonly referred to as "dalits." Within these broad categories there are thousands of castes and subcastes, called jatis, whose relative status varies from region to region. Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the class structure, the caste system remains an important source of social identification for most Hindus and many non-Hindus as well, thus making it a potent factor in the political life of the country.

Related Topics:
Caste - Untouchables - Dalits - Jati

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Population:

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1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)

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Age structure:

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0-14 years:

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31.2%(male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475)

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15-64 years:

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63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590)

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65 years and over:

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4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005 est.)

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The average age of Indians is 26 years.

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Population growth rate:

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1.4% (2005 est.)

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Birth rate:

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22.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

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Death rate:

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8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

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Net migration rate:

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