Population Distribution
| Total population |
1,326,093,247 |
| Population growth rate |
1.10% |
| Birth rate |
19.00 births per 1,000 residents |
| Life expectancy |
|
| Overall life expectancy |
67.48 years |
| Men life expectancy |
66.38 years |
| Women life expectancy |
68.70 years |
| Age structure |
|
| 0-14 years |
26.98% |
| 15-64 years |
66.63% |
| 65 years and above |
6.39% |
| Median age |
27.30 years |
| Gender ratio |
1.08 M / F |
| Population density |
403.40 residents per km˛ |
| Urbanization |
28.30% |
| Cities |
|
| Mumbai (Bombay) 12,478,447 residents (A 18.4
million), Delhi 11,007,835 (A 16.3 million), Bengaluru (Bangalore)
8,425,970, Hyderabad 6,809,970, Ahmedabad 5,570.585, Chennai (Madras)
4,681,087, Kolkata (Calcutta) 4,486,679 (A 14.1 million), Surat
4,462,002, Pune 3,115,431, Jaipur 3,073,350, Lucknow 2,815,601, Kanpur
2,767. 031, Nagpur 2,405,421, Indore 1,960,631, Thane 1,818,872, Bhopal
1,795,648, Visakhapatnam 1,730,320, Pimpri-Chinchwad 1,729,359, Patna
1,683,200, Vadodara 1,666,703, Ghaziabad 1,636,068, Ludhiana 1,613,878,
Agra 1,574,542, Nashik 1,486,973, Faridabad 1,404,653, Meerut 1,309,023,
Rajkot 1,286,995, New Delhi (New Delhi) 249,998 |
| Ethnicities |
|
| almost exclusively Indians; Minorities of Tibetans,
Chinese, Europeans |
| Religions |
|
| Hindus 81.3%; Muslims 12%; Christians 2.3%; Sikhs 1.9%,
others including Buddhists, Jain; Parsi 2.5% |
| Human Development Index (HDI) |
0.647 |
| HDI ranking |
129 |
People in India
The greatest democracy in the world
After China, India is home to the most people on
earth and the population is growing steadily. The latest
estimates are 1.4 billion, so we don't know for sure.
India is also one of the largest countries in the world.
Since so many people live here and India is also a
democracy, it can be said that India is also the
largest democratic state on earth. The politicians in
India are democratically elected in elections. But a
democracy does not guarantee wealth and so many more
poor people live in India than in Germany or Europe.
About half of the Indians have less than one euro a day
and they somehow have to live on it.
Multi-ethnic state
India is a multiethnic state, a state that has
developed from two indigenous peoples. Two thirds of the
population are the so-called Indo - Aryans who
immigrated to India a long time ago. A quarter of the
Indians belong to the Dravids who live in the south and
speak their own language. The Tamils also belong to
this ethnic group.
People of India
So in India you can also find people with different
skin colors. So there are different types of people,
depending on where they came from at some point. In the
south, the Indians are much darker-skinned than in the
north. Here you can also find blond and fair-skinned
people.
Huge poverty
In India there are huge differences between rich and
poor people. While a very small part is very rich, most
of the people live in very great poverty.
Languages in India
There are 120 languages in India and even if you
were to learn one of these languages, it would only be
spoken in the area where that same language is the main
language. One village further, nobody understands you
anymore and you would have to learn a new language. And
even if you tried sign language, you can quickly get
astray. Because our nod of the head means "no" in India
and shaking our head means "yes". You can imagine that
there can be some misunderstandings between locals and
visitors from another cultural area. In the big cities,
however, many people also speak English.
Religions in India
Most of the Indians are Hindus, over 80 percent.
This is followed by Muslims with 13.4 percent,
Christians with 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent Sikhs, 0.8
percent Buddhists and 0.4 percent Jainists. Hinduism is
more than a religion. The term means "unity in
diversity". Hinduism is not a religion like Islam or
Christianity, but there are many different religions
within Hinduism. Hindus do not want to convince other
people of their faith, as the Christians or the Muslims
often try. Hinduism is a much more tolerant religion.
An important gesture of greeting is to put your hands
together over your heart and bow your head slightly. One
says Namasté, which means something like "I respect and
respect you". This is also a basic rule of this
religion, to which most of the Indians belong.
Non-violence also characterizes the religion of Jainism,
which spread in India in the 6th century AD. That was
about the same time as Buddhism. A century later, Islam
came to India, a religion that was of great importance
to India for many centuries. In the 15th century the
Sikh religion spread in India and a little later also
Christianity. To this day Christians can live freely in
India. But the Jews also found a friendly welcome in
India. India is a very tolerant and open-minded country
towards its various religions.
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