Census of India: Literacy, Sex Ratio, Family Planning, Old Age Dependency, Age Structure, Density, Population Growth

At a Glance

• Population (2011) About 1.21 billion
• Decadal growth (2001-11) 17.64 per cent
• Density 382 per sq km
• Sex ratio 943; child sex ratio 919
• Literacy 74.04 per cent
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Geography: Population and Demography

Where Does It Fit?

This topic follows the account of population theories and problems and applies them to India’s own data. It leads to the next topic on census terminology, so that the figures and definitions can be read correctly. Previous topic: Population Challenges in Developing and Developed Countries. Next topic: Census Terminology.

What Are the Headline Figures of Census 2011?

In short: India counted 1.21 billion people in 2011, still growing but more slowly, and more literate and more urban than before.

The first population census of India was carried out in 1872, and the first complete and synchronous census in 1881; since then there has been one every ten years, under the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. The Census of 2011 was the fifteenth.

How Do the States and Union Territories Compare?

The pattern shows a south-north contrast. The southern states and Maharashtra, West Bengal and Punjab are near the late stage of the demographic transition, with low growth, while the large northern states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have still high growth, as in Theories of Population Growth: Malthusian Theory, Marxian Theory, Demographic Transition Theory. Keralam, now officially Keralam, is the state with the lowest growth, the highest literacy and the highest sex ratio, which is the best known example of the link between education, women’s status and fertility.

What Do the Age Structure, Dependency and Family Planning Data Show?

• Age structure: in Census 2011 about 29 per cent of Indians were below 15 years and about 8 to 9 per cent were 60 years or older, which leaves roughly 62 per cent in the working ages of 15 to 59. India’s median age is about 28 years, and the pyramid is narrowing at the base as births fall, as in Population Characteristics: Age Composition, Population Pyramids, Gender/Sex Composition, Literacy Rates.
• Dependency: the total dependency ratio, children plus the old per hundred working-age people, was roughly 60 to 65 in 2011, and it is falling. The old-age dependency ratio is low, about 14 per hundred, but it will rise as India ages, and the southern states are ageing first.
• Family planning: the Census does not measure contraception, but the National Family Health Survey does. The fifth survey (2019-21) estimated India’s total fertility rate at about 2.0, slightly below the replacement level of 2.1, and found that the use of modern contraceptives had risen. Fertility is above replacement in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya, and well below in Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.
• Density: 382 persons per sq km in 2011 against 325 in 2001. Delhi (about 11,300) and Bihar (about 1,100) were densest, and Arunachal Pradesh (about 17) was the least dense, as in Global Population Distribution and Density Patterns.
• Sex ratio: 943 females per 1,000 males, with Keralam (about 1,084) the highest and Haryana (about 879) among the lowest. The child sex ratio of 919 was the lowest since independence and led to schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.

These numbers are from Census 2011 and surveys, and are to be replaced by the data of Census 2027.

What Is Changing With Census 2027?

• Delay and dates: the census due in 2021 was postponed because of the pandemic. Census 2027 has a reference date of midnight on 1 March 2027, and 1 October 2026 for the snow-bound areas of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• Two phases: houselisting and housing census between April and September 2026, with each state or Union Territory completing its own 30-day window and a self-enumeration option, and population enumeration in February 2027.
• Caste: caste enumeration has been approved and will be captured in the population enumeration phase, the first time since 1931 in a full census, as the earlier censuses after independence counted only the scheduled castes and tribes.
• Digital: data are collected through mobile applications, with self-enumeration online.
• Stakes: the data will be used to update population figures, the sex ratio and fertility trends, urbanisation, and to plan schemes. The freeze on the readjustment of Lok Sabha seats on the basis of the 1971 census ends with the first census after 2026, so the figures will matter for delimitation, and for the debate between the southern states, which have controlled their population growth, and the northern states.

As an analytical point, Census 2011 is already 15 years old, and so the figures that are quoted for the current population, such as the 1.46 billion of the United Nations, are estimates and projections. Policy has been made on the basis of old data, and the new census will reveal how far fertility, migration, urbanisation and household amenities have changed, as in Global Population Distribution and Density Patterns.

Where Does India Stand?

• History: in the decade 1901 to 1911 the birth rate was about 49 and the death rate about 43 per thousand, with natural increase of only 6.6 per thousand; the death rate then fell steadily to about 7 per thousand in 2001 to 2011, while the birth rate fell more slowly from about 41 in 1961 to about 22, so that natural increase peaked at about 22 per thousand in the 1960s and 1970s and then declined to about 15.
• Fertility: India’s TFR fell to about 2.0 in the National Family Health Survey of 2019–21, below the replacement level, and the United Nations population fund estimated 1.9 in 2025. Bihar, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh still have higher rates, while Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and others are below 2.
• Population momentum: because of the large cohort of young people who are entering childbearing age, India’s population will continue to grow for a few decades even with low fertility. The UN projects a peak of around 1.7 billion in the 2060s, and the country has been the most populous since 2023.
• Policy: from the first family planning programme in 1952, India moved to a target-free approach based on health and education. Census 2027, with houselisting in 2026 and enumeration in February 2027, will provide the first full count in 16 years.

The transition brings an opportunity and a challenge. The demographic dividend arises when the share of the working-age population is high and the dependency ratio low, but it can be realised only through jobs, skills and health, as in Population Characteristics: Age Composition, Population Pyramids, Gender/Sex Composition, Literacy Rates. The risk is a later ageing of society, as seen in Japan and South Korea, where a very low fertility rate, below 1 in South Korea, is shrinking the working-age population. As an analytical point, India’s southern states are already close to the ageing stage, whereas the northern states are still young, and so the question of fiscal transfers and of seats in Parliament based on population is bound up with the demographic transition.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Facts Census numbers asked
• Current affairs Census 2027
• Politics Delimitation debate

What Came Next?

The next topic explains the main terms used in the Census. Next topic: Census Terminology.

Key People and Terms

• Census Decennial count of the population
• Decadal growth rate Percentage change over ten years
• Registrar General Head of the census organisation
• Houselisting First phase of the census
• Self-enumeration Online filling of forms by households
• Delimitation Redrawing of constituencies

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions use census data to describe regional patterns. These points add depth.

• Pattern South-north contrast
• Link Literacy and fertility
• Next Census 2027 and delimitation