With an estimated population of 1.13 billion,[8] India is the world's second most populous country. Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a dramatic increase in the country's urban population. India's largest cities are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.[50]

India is the second most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.[50] India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,[98] is the official language of India.[99] English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language.'[6] The constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[100]

Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.[101] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[102]

India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).[8] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%);[103] Bihar has the lowest (47%).[104] The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.[8]


Cities by population Rank Core City State Pop. Rank Core City State Pop. view • talk • edit

Mumbai

Delhi

1 Mumbai Maharashtra 13,662,885 11 Jaipur Rajasthan 2,997,114
2 Delhi Delhi 11,954,217 12 Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 2,621,063
3 Bangalore Karnataka 5,180,533 13 Nagpur Maharashtra 2,359,331
4 Kolkata West Bengal 5,021,458 14 Indore Madhya Pradesh 1,768,303
5 Chennai Tamil Nadu 4,562,843 15 Patna Bihar 1,753,543
6 Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh 3,980,938 16 Bhopal Madhya Pradesh 1,712,355
7 Ahmedabad Gujarat 3,867,336 17 Thane Maharashtra 1,673,465
8 Pune Maharashtra 3,230,322 18 Ludhiana Punjab 1,662,325
9 Surat Gujarat 3,124,249 19 Agra Uttar Pradesh 1,590,073
10 Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 3,067,663 20 Vadodara Gujarat 1,487,956
2008 estimation[105]