India’s population is now 121.09 crores: Hindus decline, Muslims up

Hindus 79.8%; Muslims 14.2%.

By Dileep Thekkethil
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A few days after the UN report on global population predicted that India will overtake China to become the most populous country by 2022, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner on Tuesday said India’s population stands at 121.09 crores, making steady progress towards reaching the number one spot.

According to the religious census report, 79.8 % of India’s total population consists of Hindus and 14.2 % Muslims.

Muslim population registered a marginal growth of 0.8%, and the Hindu population showed a declining trend, down 0.7%. The current growth rate of Hindu and Muslim population of India is at  96.63 crores and 17.22 crores, respectively.

The population of other religions also saw a decline: Christian at 2.3%; Sikh and Buddhists stood at 1.7% and 0.7%, respectively.

The current population of India segmented under different religions: Hindu population is 96.63 crores (79.8 percent); Muslim 17.22 crores (14.2 percent); Christian 2.78 crores (2.3 percent); Sikh 2.08 crores (1.7 percent); Buddhist 0.84 crores (0.7 percent); Jain 0.45 crores (0.4 per cent), Other religions and persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7 percent) and religion not stated 0.29 crores (0.2 percent).

According to the census report of 2001, the population of India was 102 crores out of which 82.75 crores (80.45%) of people were Hindus, 13.8 crores (13.4%) were Muslims. The growth rate of the Indian population of the one decade 2001-2011 was 17.7%.