New Delhi: The latest census data on the population of religious groups, was released by the Modi government on Tuesday, shows a 0.7 percent decline in the Hindu population, while a growth of 0.8 percent has been registered in the Muslim community. Christians remain stable at 2.3%. The rate of growth in the last decade is also remarkable among the Muslim community – it is 24% to the Hindus 17%, while Christians are a close third at 15%.
The census has distributed the total population amongst six religions namely Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikh, Buddhist and Jains. The data are released by sex and residence up to sub-districts and towns. Total population in 2011 is 121.09 crores ; Hindu 96.63 crores (79.8%); Muslim 17.22 crores (14.2%); Christian 2.78 crores (2.3%); Sikh 2.08 crores (1.7%); Buddhist 0.84 crores (0.7%); Jain 0.45 crores (0.4%), Other Religions & Persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7%) and Religion Not Stated 0.29 crores (0.2%).
The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8 PP. There has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians and Jains.
Growth Rate
The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 %. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was as Hindus: 16.8%; Muslim: 24.6%; Christian: 15.5%; Sikh: 8.4%; Buddhist: 6.1% and Jain: 5.4%.
Earlier, the government used to provide religion-wise break-up of population data. However, the practice was discontinued in 2011 because of a controversy that followed the 2001 Census, which showed a relatively high growth of Muslim population primarily on account of the inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir.
