India
- Capital:
- New Delhi
- Continent:
- Asia
- Region(s):
- Southern Asia, South Central Asia
- Abbreviation:
- IND
* As of 6/24/2025
1 birth
Every 1.4 seconds
1 death
Every 3.2 seconds
1 emigrant
Every 1.1 minutes
1 person
Every 2.5 seconds
India, located in South Asia, is bordered by the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, and is also bordered by the countries of Pakistan, Bhutan, China, Nepal, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and Bangladesh. India is the world’s 7th largest country by area with more than 1.3 billion residents.
Data on ethnicity is not collected by the Indian census, although the CIA World Factbook estimates the population is 72% Indo-Aryan, 25% Dravidian, and 3% Mongoloid and other.
Hinduism is the most common religion in India, accounting for about 80% of the population. Islam is the second-largest religion at 13% of the population. Other major religious groups in India are Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%) and Jains (0.4%). People who claimed no religion are officially recorded under ‘other’ by the census. In 2011, 0.9% of Indians selected the ‘No Religion’ category.
While the number of Indians living in urban areas has increased over the last two decades, about 67% of people still live in rural areas. In 2011, India had a literacy rate of 74%: 82% for men and 65% for women. The literacy rate varies wildly by state. Bihar is the least literate with a rate of 63.82%.
The population of India uses numerous languages to converse across the county. These languages include English, Hindi, and Tamil along with many additional tongues and dialects; however, the former two languages (English and Hindi) are the official languages of the Indian Government. Additionally, 44% of the population uses Hindi as their mother tongue.
The current ranking of India’s quality of life is 49 out of 66, giving it a quality of life index of 121.61. The health care ratio is 68.04, and the cost of living index is 23.81.
The first comprehensive nationwide census was carried out under the auspices of Lord Ripon, the British Viceroy of India at the time, and counted a population of 288 million in 1881. Since then, a census has been held every ten years in India.