Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Home Minister released the Primary Census Abstract-Data Highlights of Census 2011 in a function organized by the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India here today.On this occasion Union Home Minister congratulated all stake holders for completing the 2011 Census and said that the results of efforts to improve the quality by new methods of training, data collection, data processing and data dissemination are there before all of us. The provisional data was published within 3 weeks of the completion of Census and the final housing Census data was brought out within 1 year of the provisional release. Today, the final results of the Population Enumeration are being released again a year ahead of schedule.
Shri Shinde also expressed his happiness that the growth rate of population has come down during the last decade and literacy has increased significantly, particularly the female literacy. He further said that all this information would go a long way in assessing the ongoing schemes and planning appropriate interventions in rural and urban areas. On the occasion, Union Home Minister distributed Census Medals to Shri G. K. Pillai, former Union Home Secretary and the officers of the Census Organization in recognition to the outstanding services rendered by them during Census 2011.
Some of the salient features of the data released are as below:-
Total population of the country is 1.21 billion showing an increase of 181.96 million persons in absolute numbers of population in India during the decade 2001-2011. During this decade, population of India grew by 17.7% as against 21.5% in the previous decade.
As per Census 2011, 833.5 million persons live in rural areas and 377.1 million persons lives in urban areas. Thus, more than 2/3rd of total population of India lives in rural areas.
Density of population as per current Census is 382 persons per sq.km. against 325 persons per sq.km. in 2001.
Child population in the age group 0-6 years in 2011 Census is 164.5 million as against 163.8 million showing an increase of 0.4% in the last decade.
Sex ratio in Census 2011 is 943 females per 1000 males as against 933 in 2001 Census.
Population of Scheduled Castes in this Census is 201.4 million as against 166.6 million in 2001 registering an increase of 20.8% whereas Scheduled Tribes population increased to 104.3 million in 2011 from 84.3 million in 2001.
As per Census 2011, number of literates is 763.5 million as against 560.7 million in 2001.