CENSUS 2011

The Indian Census is the most credible source of information on Demography (Population characteristics), Economic Activity, Literacy & Education, Housing & Household Amenities, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Language, Religion, Migration, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data since 1872.

Census 2011 is the 15th National Census of the country. This is the only source of primary data at village, town and ward level. It provides valuable information for planning and formulation of polices for Central & State Governments and is widely used by National & International agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more.

The delimitation/reservation of Constituencies - Parliamentary/Assembly/Panchayats and other Local Bodies is also done on the basis of the demographic data thrown up by the Census. Census is the basis for reviewing the country's progress in the past decade, monitoring the on-going schemes of the Government and most importantly, plan for the future. That is why the slogan of Census 2011 is "Our Census, Our Future".

The Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the Census Act 1948 and Rules made thereunder.

Census Process:

The Census process involves visiting each and every household and gathering particulars by asking questions and filling up Census Forms. The information collected about individuals is kept absolutely confidential. In fact this information is not accessible even to Courts of law.

After the field work is over, the forms are transported to data processing centres located at 15 cities across the country. The data processing is done using sophisticated software called Intelligent Character Recognition Software (ICR). This technology was pioneered by India in Census 2001 and has become the benchmark for Censuses all around the globe. This involves the scanning of the Census Forms at high speed and extracting the data automatically using computer software. This revolutionary technology has enabled the processing of the voluminous data in a very short time and saving a huge amount of manual labour and cost.

The 15th Indian National census was conducted in two phases, house-listing and population enumeration. House-listing phase began on April 1, 2010 and involved collection of information about all buildings.

Information for National Population Register was also collected in the first phase which included data about the person that will be converted to digital form along with fingerprinting and photograph of the person, which will be used to issue a 12-digit unique identification number to all registered Indians by Unique Identification Authority of India.

Census Commissioner of India is C. Chandramouli.

Census report:

1. India's population has reached to 1.21 billion. Indians percentage in world population is 17.5.
2. The country’s population is almost equal to the combined population of the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan.
3. UN estimated that world population grew at an annual rate of 1.23 per cent during 2000-2010 but India’s annual growth rate comes out to be 1.64 per cent much higher even that of China.
4. It is now estimated that by 2030 India will overtake China in terms of population and will become the most populous country on the earth with 17.9 per cent population of the world living in India.
5. 2001-2011 is the first decade (exception of 1911-1921) in which the net addition of population is less as compared to previous by 0.86 million.
6. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous State with 199 million people which is more than the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country of the world.
7. Lakshadweep is the least populated at 64,429 persons.
8. Among UTs, Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli registered very high growth rate of 53 per cent points.
9. Nagaland is the only state that registered a small negative growth whereas Bihar registered the highest decadal growth rate of 25.07 per cent.
10. The population density of India grows to 382 persons per square kilometer from 325 persons per square kilometer in 2001.
11. Among states Bihar ranks first by having density of 1102 persons per square kilometer followed by West Bengal. Whereas Arunachal Pradesh ranks lowest by having density as 17 persons per square kilometer.
12. Among UTs NCT of Delhi ranks first with density of 11297 persons per square kilometer and Andaman and Nicobar ranks lowest with density of 46 persons per square kilometer.
13. Overall sex ratio at the national level has increased from 933 to 940.
14. Kerala with 1084 has the highest sex ratio and Daman and Diu has the lowest sex ratio of 618.
15. Child sex ratio has declined from 927 to 914.
16. Top three states recording highest value of child sex ratio are Mizoram (971), Meghalaya (970) and Chhattisgarh (964).
17. Among UTs Andaman and Nicobar islands ranks first with child sex ratio of 966 females per 1000 males.
18. Lowest child sex ratio among state is of Haryana (830) and among UTs is Delhi (866).
19. The literacy rate of India according to 2011 Census is 74.04 per cent with 82.14 per cent males and 65.46 per cent females.
20. Among states Kerala ranks first in literacy with 93.91 per cent literates and Bihar ranks lowest with 63.82 per cent literates.
21. Among UTs Lakshadweep ranks first with 92.28 per cent literates and Dadar and Nagar Haveli ranks lowest with 77.65 literates.