Muslim community registers growth according Census report
While the figure on religion was released on Tuesday, more than four years after compilation of the data, the caste data is yet to be made public.
Several political parties including RJD, JD(U), SP and DMK have been asking the government to release the caste census figure. The data on socio economic status of the population was released on July 3.
According to the religious census data of 2011, released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, the total population in the country in 2011 was 121.09 crore.
Hindu population is 96.63 crores (79.8 per cent); Muslim 17.22 crores (14.2 per cent); Christian 2.78 crores (2.3 per cent); Sikh 2.08 crores (1.7 per cent); Buddhist 0.84 crores (0.7 per cent); Jain 0.45 crores (0.4 per cent), Other religions and persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7 per cent) and religion not stated 0.29 crores (0.2 per cent).
The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8 percentage point (PP) in 2011, the census data said.
The proportion of Hindu population to total population in 2011 has declined by 0.7 PP; the proportion of Sikh population has declined by 0.2 PP and the Buddhist population has declined by 0.1 PP during the decade 2001-2011.
There has been not much change in the proportion of Christians and Jains. As per 2001 census, India's total population was 102 crores of which Hindu population comprised of 82.75 crore (80.45 per cent) and Muslims were 13.8 crore (13.4 per cent).
The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 per cent. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was as Hindus: 16.8 per cent; Muslim: 24.6 per cent; Christian: 15.5 per cent; Sikh: 8.4 per cent; Buddhist: 6.1 per cent and Jain: 5.4 per cent.
