India has the world’s second largest population in the world, exceeded only by that
of China. Estimate for 1999 put the figure at about 980 million (16% of the world’s
population). Population density:
273 persons/km
Heavily Populated Cities: Despite
India’s many large cities, the nation is still overwhelmingly rural, 74% of the
population lives in the countryside. Mumbai
is the biggest city with an urban population of nearly 13 million. Other thickly populated
cities- Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mahe, Howrah, Kanpur
City, Bangalore. All of them have above 2000 persons per sq. km.
Sex ratio: 927 females per 1000
males. Kerala is the only state where women outnumber men (1036 women for 1000 men).
Literacy: Average literacy in India is
around 60%. Kerala stands at the top with 89.81% literate people.
= Official languages
: Hindi and English
= National Language
: Hindi
= 13
Officially recognized languages.
i) Assamese : official language of
Assam
ii) Bengali : Indo-Aryan language; official
language of West Bengal spoken
by 181 million people.
iii) Gujarati : Indo-Aryan language; official language
of Gujarat.
iv) Hindi : Official languages
of six states. Devanagari script.
v) Kannada : A Dravidian language. Official language
of Karnataka.
vi) Kashmiri : Perso-Arabic script. 55% of Kashmiri people
speak this
language.
vii) Malayalam : A Dravidian language. State language of Kerala.
viii) Marathi : Official language of Maharashtra
ix) Punjabi : It is written in Gurumukki script. State
language of Punjab.
x) Oriya : An Indo-Aryan language.
Official language of Orissa.
xi) Sanskrit : Classical language of India. One of the
oldest languages of
the world. No part of India speaks Sanskrit.
xii) Sindhi : Spoken by 16 million people
xiii) Tamil : Oldest Dravidian language
spoken by 64 million.
xiv) Telugu : The state language of Andhra Pradesh.
xv) Urdu : The state language of
Jammu and Kashmir. |
