Total population is 1.21 billion.
181 million people added in a decade.
Overall sex ratio slightly increases.
Child Sex Ratio alarmingly decreases.
74% Literacy rate
News Desk BeyondHeadlines
Population: The provisional report of the 2011 Census is out and there is not much to rejoice of except the higher literacy rate figure.
According to the Provisional report issued, India has added 181 million people in the last decade. This is almost equal to the population of Brazil, the fifth largest country. The total population of India is now 1.21 billion. However, in actual terms it has added less population compared to the previous decade and registered the sharpest decline since independence.
Uttar Pradesh is still the biggest state, in terms of population, which alone is more than Brazil. UP and Maharashtra together has more people than USA.
The total number of children in the age-group 0-6 is 158.8 million, 13.1% of the total population.
Sex Ratio: The overall sex ratio has slightly increased from 933 in 2001 to 940. Sex ratio has slightly improved in most states. Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat have, however, shown declining trend. The report is alarming as in spite of campaigns and prohibitory laws, sex ratio among children (0-6 yrs) the child sex ratio is lowest since independence. In 2001 it was 927. It has now gone down to 914.
There is slight increasing trend in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. In 27 other states it is still on the down side. Haryana (830) and Punjab (846) still have the lowest sex ratio among children.
Literacy: As per provisional population, literates constitute 74% of the total population aged seven and above and illiterates form 26%. Literacy rate has gone up from 64.83% in 2001 to 74.04% in 2011, an increase of 9.21%.
The literacy rate for males and females are now 82.14% and 65.46% respectively. It is encouraging to note that among literates added during the decade, female outnumbers male. Kerala (93.91%) still has the highest literacy rate, while Bihar is at the bottom (63.82%).
