New Delhi: The Hindu population in the country has fallen 0.7 per cent in the last decade, making it less than 80 per cent of the country’s total population of 121 crore people, while Muslims today constitute 14.2 per cent of India’s population.
According to the latest Census figures, there are 96.63 crore Hindus in the country, 17.22 crore Muslims, 2.78 crore Christians, 2.08 crore Sikhs, 0.84 crore Buddhists, 0.45 crore Jains, 0.79 crore persons following other religions and persuasions and 0.29 per cent people who have not stated their religion. The total population was recorded at 121.09 crore.
As per the data released by the government on Tuesday, it is for the first time that the Hindu population in the country has slipped below 80 per cent mark to 79.8 per cent of the total population, witnessing a decline of 0.7 per cent between 2001-2011.
In the 2001 Census, the Hindu population had comprised 82.75 crore (80.45 per cent) of India’s total population and Muslims were 13.8 crore (13.4 per cent). The growth rate of Muslims is also the highest in the decade of 2001-2011 at 24.6 per cent amongst all religious communities. For a country’s population that witnessed a growth rate of 17.7 per cent in the decade, the growth rate of Hindus was 16.8 per cent, followed by Christians at 15.5 per cent, Sikhs at 8.4 per cent, Buddhists at 6.1 per cent and Jains at 5.4 per cent.
As per the data, “the proportion of Hindu population to total population in 2011 has declined by 0.7 percentage point (PP); the proportion of Sikh population declined by 0.2 PP and the Buddhist population declined by 0.1 PP during 2001-2011”.
The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8 PP while there has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians and Jains. The data was released by gender and residence up to sub-districts and towns. The data is usually released within three years, but the Congress-led UPA government was not in favour of making it public before the Lok Sabha polls. The NDA government released one year after coming to power.
