Population

This chapter opens the book India: People and Economy. The rest of the book — settlements, agriculture, water, minerals, industry, transport, trade — is about how these people use India's resources. NCERT starts from a plain fact: India is a very large population on limited land, and many argue that this puts pressure on resources and feeds socio-economic problems. The chapter covers four things: distribution, density, growth and composition.

• Builds on Fundamentals of Human Geography Chapter 2 (The World Population), which taught density, growth, components of change and demographic transition at world scale. Here the same tools are applied to India's States.
• Builds on India: Physical Environment: relief (Chapter 2), drainage (Chapter 3) and climate (Chapter 4) explain why the northern plains and coasts are crowded and the Himalaya, Thar and north-east are not.
• Leads into Chapter 2 (Human Settlements) — villages, towns and urbanisation — and Chapter 3 (Agriculture), which employs most Indian workers.
• UPSC: GS1 (population and associated issues, urbanisation, diversity of India — language and religion), GS2/GS3 (demographic dividend, skilling, employment). Prelims has asked Census facts for four decades: densest and sparsest States, the four phases, rural share, language families, religious minorities.

• 1,210 million people (Census 2011); Census every 10 years, first in 1872, first complete in 1881.
• Most populous: UP → Maharashtra → Bihar → West Bengal; ten States hold about 76% of Indians.
• Density 382 per sq km (2011), up from 117 (1951): Bihar 1,102 highest State, Arunachal 17 lowest, Delhi 11,297.
• Four growth phases: 1901–21 stagnant · 1921–51 steady · 1951–81 explosion · post-1981 high but slowing; 2011 annual rate 1.64%.
• 68.8% rural, 31.16% urban; four language families — Indo-Aryan 73%, Dravidian 20%; Hindus 79.8%, Muslims 14.2%.
• Workers only 39.8%; agriculture 54.6% of workers (58.2% in 2001); main worker = 183 days or more of work a year.

India's population data come from the Census, held every 10 years. The first population census was conducted in 1872, but the first complete census came only in 1881. Every number in this chapter — population, density, growth, rural–urban split, language, religion, workers — comes from Census tables, mostly the 2011 Census given in the book's Appendix.

India's population is very unevenly distributed. Uttar Pradesh has the largest population, followed by Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal. Ten States — UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat — hold about 76 per cent of India's people. At the other end, Jammu & Kashmir (1.04%), Arunachal Pradesh (0.11%) and Uttarakhand (0.84%) have small shares despite fairly large areas.

Physical factors. NCERT says climate, terrain and availability of water largely decide the pattern. So the North Indian Plains, deltas and coastal plains hold a higher share of people than the interior districts of the southern and central States, the Himalaya, parts of the north-east and the western States. But human effort can change this: irrigation in Rajasthan, minerals and energy in Jharkhand and transport networks in the Peninsular States have raised population in areas that were once thinly peopled.

Socio-economic and historical factors. The evolution of settled agriculture, the pattern of human settlement, transport, industrialisation and urbanisation. River plains and coasts stayed crowded even where their land and water show signs of degradation, because of an early history of settlement and good transport. Cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur — are crowded because industry and urban jobs pull rural–urban migrants.

Density of population is the number of persons per unit area. It relates people to land better than raw numbers. India's density in 2011 was 382 persons per sq km, up from 117 in 1951 — a rise of more than 200 persons per sq km. It ranges from 17 in Arunachal Pradesh to 11,297 in the NCT of Delhi.

• High among northern States: Bihar (1,102), West Bengal (1,029), Uttar Pradesh (828).
• High among Peninsular States: Kerala (859), Tamil Nadu (555).
• Moderate: Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha.
• Low: the Himalayan hill States and the north-eastern States (except Assam).
• Very high: the Union Territories, except the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

NCERT calls arithmetic density a crude measure. For a country with a large farming population it suggests two better ones:

Growth of population is the change in the number of people in an area between two points of time, expressed as a percentage. It has two components: natural growth (crude birth rate minus crude death rate) and induced growth (the volume of people moving in and out). This chapter studies only natural growth. India's annual growth rate was 1.64 per cent in 2011.

NCERT adds that the World Development Report projected India's population to reach 1,350 million by 2025.

1991–2001. Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and Goa grew slowly — not more than about 20 per cent in the decade. Kerala was the lowest in the whole country at 9.4 per cent. A continuous west-to-east belt across the north-west, north and north-centre — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, MP, Sikkim, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — averaged 20–25 per cent.

2001–2011. Almost every State and UT grew more slowly than in the previous decade. All six most populous States — UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and MP — slowed; the smallest fall was in Andhra Pradesh (3.5 percentage points) and the largest in Maharashtra (6.7). Tamil Nadu (+3.9) and Puducherry (+7.1) grew faster than before.

Adolescents (10–19 years) were about 20.9 per cent of India's population in 2011 — 52.7 per cent of them male and 47.3 per cent female. They are a youthful population with high potential, but vulnerable if not guided. NCERT lists the challenges: lower age at marriage, illiteracy (especially female), school dropouts, low intake of nutrients, high maternal mortality among adolescent mothers, high rates of HIV/AIDS, physical and mental disability, drug abuse and alcoholism, juvenile delinquency and crime.

Where people live — village or town — is a key indicator of social and economic character. In 2011 about 68.8 per cent of Indians lived in villages and 31.16 per cent in towns. The urban share is low but growing much faster, helped by economic development and better health and hygiene.

• Very rural States: Himachal Pradesh and Bihar (about 90 and 89 per cent rural).
• Union Territories are mostly urban, except Dadra and Nagar Haveli (53.38 per cent rural).
• Village size: under 200 persons in the hill States of the north-east, western Rajasthan and the Rann of Kachchh; up to 17,000 in Kerala and parts of Maharashtra.
• The degree of urbanisation and rural–urban migration decide how concentrated rural population is, both within and between States.

Where urbanisation is high. Rural–urban migration is most visible in towns along main roads and railways of the North Indian Plains and in the industrial areas around Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru–Mysuru, Madurai–Coimbatore, Ahmedabad–Surat, Delhi–Kanpur and Ludhiana–Jalandhar. Where it is low: the agriculturally stagnant middle and lower Ganga plains, Telangana, non-irrigated western Rajasthan, remote hilly and tribal areas of the north-east, flood-prone parts of the Peninsula and eastern Madhya Pradesh.

India is a land of great linguistic diversity. Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India (1903–1928) counted 179 languages and 544 dialects. Today there are 22 scheduled languages and many non-scheduled ones. Among scheduled languages, Hindi speakers form the largest share; the smallest groups are Sanskrit, Bodo and Manipuri (2011). Linguistic regions have no sharp boundaries; they merge and overlap in frontier zones.

Religion is one of the most powerful forces in the cultural and political life of most Indians, and it reaches into family and community life — so geographers study where each community lives. Some States and districts have a large share of one religion, which may be almost absent elsewhere.

By economic status the Census divides the population into main workers, marginal workers and non-workers. In 2011 workers (main + marginal) were only 39.8 per cent; about 60 per cent were non-workers. A large dependent population suggests many unemployed or under-employed people.

Work participation rate (the share of the population that works) varies from about 29.1 per cent in Lakshadweep to 51.9 per cent in Himachal Pradesh. It is high in Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya, and among UTs in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. NCERT's explanation: in less developed areas, subsistence or near-subsistence activities need many manual workers, so more people — including women — work.

Occupational composition means how workers are engaged — farming, manufacturing, trade, services or professions. India has a large primary sector: 54.6 per cent of workers are cultivators and agricultural labourers, only 3.8 per cent are in household industries, and 41.6 per cent are other workers. Male workers outnumber female workers in all three sectors; the number of female workers is relatively high in the primary sector, though women's share in secondary and tertiary work has been improving. The agricultural share fell from 58.2 per cent (2001) to 54.6 per cent (2011) — a sectoral shift from farm to non-farm work.

Regional pattern (Appendix v): Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland have very large shares of cultivators; Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh have more agricultural labourers; highly urbanised Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry have most workers in other services — reflecting little farmland and much urbanisation and industry.

Try each question yourself first, then open the outline to compare. The four multiple-choice questions are in the self-check below.

Numbers

One-liners

• Climate, terrain and water set India's population map; irrigation, minerals, transport and cities redraw it.
• Physiological density = population ÷ net cultivated area; agricultural density = agricultural population ÷ net cultivable area.
• Phases: 1901–21 stagnant, 1921–51 steady, 1951–81 explosion, post-1981 high but slowing.
• Deaths fell first, births later — India's demographic transition in one line.
• The south grows slowly, the Hindi belt and Bihar fast; Nagaland shrank in 2001–11.
• Goa is the most urbanised State; Himachal the most rural.
• Indo-Aryan speakers dominate; Khasi is Austric; Brahui is Dravidian.
• WPR is higher where economies are subsistence-based.

Traps to avoid

• Highest-density State in 2011 is Bihar, not West Bengal (2001) or Kerala (1981).
• 1872 is the first census; 1881 the first complete one.
• Table 1.1 misprints: 1921–31 growth is 11.00%, not 11.60%; 1951–61 is 21.64%, not 21.51%.
• Growth rates are falling since 1981, despite NCERT's ‘steadily increasing’ sentence.
• Goa and Mizoram are more urban than rural in 2011 — the text's ‘little over half rural’ is a 2001 leftover.
• Sikkim, Arunachal and Tripura are not Buddhist-majority (27.4%, 11.8%, 3.4%).
• NCERT's ‘secondary 3.8%’ is only household industry; factory work is inside ‘other workers’.
• Agricultural labourers (30.0%) outnumber cultivators (24.6%).
• Youth = 15–29 (NYP-2014); adolescents = 10–19; demographic-dividend working age = 15–64.
• India is no longer ‘second after China’: the UN says India passed China in April 2023.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• Density by Census year is UPSC's favourite: highest State density 1981 (1982 — Kerala), 2001 (2003 — West Bengal); lowest density (1988, 2007 — Arunachal; 1996 — Sikkim among four north-eastern States); 1951–2001 density and growth (2009). Learn the 2011 Appendix (i) extremes and remember answers change with the Census year.
• Growth: the four phases matched to periods (2002), 1921 as the ‘Great Divide’ (1985), Kerala's low growth (1999), India's 1971 population (1979), decadal growth below/above 20% (2005).
• Distribution and rural–urban: second most populous State (2005, 2006), smallest population (2008), area vs population of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal (2005), rural share (1984) and the most rural State (2008 — Himachal).
• Language and religion: language family of Tamil (1979), Khasi (1998), Brahui (1994); Bengali after Hindi (1993); Eighth Schedule amendments (2008, 2024); Christians' share (1992, 2001); largest minorities by region (1999). Demographic dividend (2011, 2013) and occupational structure (1995).

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• GS1: distribution and density in the Ganga basin with reference to land, soil and water (2025); challenges of demographic transition in contemporary India (2026); population growth and poverty (2015); empowering women as the key to population control (2019); objectives of population education (2021).
• GS2/GS3: demographic dividend ‘only theoretical’ without education and skills, and government measures (GS2 2016); demographic dividend versus falling employability and where jobs will come from (GS3 2014) — use the youth share, NYP-2014, the 2015 skills policy and the occupational structure.
• Answer frame: Census data (2011, with one or two Appendix numbers) → spatial pattern (north–south, plains–hills) → causes (physical; socio-economic and historical) → phase or stage → consequences (pressure on land, dependency, under-employment) → policy (skilling, female education, urban planning).
• Draw a ranked bar chart of States instead of a map when a map is risky, a four-phase growth chart in any growth answer, and a stacked occupational bar in any workforce answer.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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