Population composition

The essentials

Population composition describes the characteristics of people, such as age, sex, residence, ethnicity, language, religion, literacy and occupation. India shows great diversity on all these counts.

Rural-urban composition: At the 2011 Census, about 69 per cent of India's population lived in villages and about 31 per cent in towns and cities. Linguistic composition: Indian languages belong to four families – Austric (Nishada), Dravidian (Dravida), Sino-Tibetan (Kirata) and Indo-European (Aryan). The Indo-Aryan group is the largest by number of speakers, followed by the Dravidian group. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 scheduled languages.

Religious composition: Hindus form the majority in most states and districts. Muslims are concentrated in Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, and certain districts of West Bengal, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh; Christians in the north-east, Kerala and parts of other states; Sikhs mainly in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi; Jains and Buddhists in smaller numbers in specific regions.

Key points

• Occupational composition: the Census divides the working population into main workers (work at least 183 days in a year), marginal workers (less than 183 days) and non-workers.
• Workers are grouped as cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers and other workers.
• A large share of India's workforce is still in the primary sector, though this share is falling.
• Sex ratio in India is the number of females per 1,000 males; it was 943 in 2011 (940 in the provisional figures), with Kerala highest among states.
• Literacy in India (2011) was about 74 per cent, with a wide gap between males and females; Kerala had the highest literacy rate among states.

Exam tips

Remember the four language families with their alternative names; matching questions are common.

Common mistakes

Marginal workers are not unemployed; they work, but for fewer than 183 days in the reference year.