India's People | India People

Population: 1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 31.2% (male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475) 15-64 years: 63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590) 65 years and over: 4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005 est.)

Median age: Total: 24.66 years male: 24.64 years female: 24.67 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.4% (2005 est.)

Death rate: 8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Sex ratio: At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate: Total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: Total population: 64.35 years male: 63.57 years female: 65.16 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.9% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.1 million (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 310,000 (2001 est.)

Nationality: Noun: Indian(s) adjective: Indian

Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages: English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language

Literacy: Definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 59.5% male: 70.2% female: 48.3% (2003 est.)

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