Government releases religion-wise population data; 79.8% Hindus, 14.2% Muslims

NEW DELHI: The religion-wise population data released by the Government on Tuesday indicated a rise in the proportion of Muslim population in the country during 2001-2011 despite a significant decline in the population growth rate of the community registered during previous census decade (1991-2001).

According to the census data released on Tuesday, the growth rate of Muslim population in the decade 2001-2011 stood at 24.6% as against 36% during 1991-2001.

However, this 24.6% growth rate has resulted in the proportion of Muslim population growing by 0.8% from 13.4% (2001 census) to 14.2% (2011) of total population. The release of the data comes ahead of assembly elections in Bihar where the Muslim population is pegged at 17%, according to the data released on Tuesday.

Minority Sikh population also witnessed a substantial dip in their population growth rate from over 18% (1991-2001 decade) to 8.4% during 2001-2011. As a result, Sikh population as a proportion of total population has witnessed a decline of 0.2% from 1.9% in 2001 to 1.7%.


The growth rate of Hindu population, too, has witnessed a decline from 20.3% during 1991-2001 to 17.7% during 2001-2011, resulting in Hindu population in the country dipping below 80% to 79.8%, the data indicated. The religion-wise data released indicated that the proportion of Christian and Jain communities remained static at 2.3% and 0.4%, respectively. The proportion of Buddhists, in contrast, has witnessed a marginal dip from 0.8% (2001) to 0.7% (2011 census).

There was a controversy surrounding the calculation of Muslim population growth rate last time which was revised to 29.3% (1991-2001 decade) after adjusting for the fact that the census could not take place in Jammu & Kashmir in 1991. Even after this base, the Muslim population growth rate has witnessed higher decline than that of Hindu population growth rate over previous decade.