14 DAY TRIAL // India is well on its way towards becoming the most populous country on the planet. The preliminary Census 2011 conclusions show that the nation is currently home to 1.21 billion people. For comparison, China has an estimated 1.33 billion citizens.
The new data indicate that the Indian population grew by more than 181 million individuals between 2001 and 2011. Experts say that the reason why the country is catching up with China is that the former does not have a birth control plan in place.
To get an idea of how many people there are in India today, consider that the country's population is equal to that of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan and the United States combined. The new figures show that the nation currently accounts for about 17.5 percent of the world's population.
But the 181 million people increase the Census 2011 reports is lower than those recorded during other decades. The only time the growth rate was lower than this was during the decade spanning from 1911 to 1921, but other factors were in place to curb population growth at that time.
According to the latest information, there are now 623.7 million males in India, and about 586.5 million females. As such, the number of men grows by 17.19 percent in the last decades, whereas the number of women grew by some 18.12 percent.
The new figures were released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, C. Chandramouli, at a conference also attended by the Union Home Secretary, G. K. Pilla.
“Provisional population is arrived at by adding the population as reported by each enumerator and the final population data is likely to be released next year,’” Dr. Chandramouli told reporters, as quoted by The Hindu.
There are also some bits of good news within these statistics. For example, it was found that literacy rates went up by 9.21 percent, from 64.83 percent in 2001 to 74.04 percent today. The country is still struggling to reach a higher literacy level, and, judging by its effort, it will succeed soon.
Administratively speaking, the states with the most inhabitants are Uttar Pradesh, which has 199 million people, and Maharashtra, with no less than112 million people. The state of Lakshadweep, the least populated in the country, has 64,429 residents.