Demographics of India

India is the most populous country in the world, comprising approximately one-sixth of the world population. According to the United Nations' World Population Dashboard, India's population reached slightly over 1.428 billion in April 2023, surpassing China.
India remains a relatively young country, though it is undergoing a gradual demographic transition. As of 2024, the median age is approximately 29.8 years, compared to 40.2 in China. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 68% of the population is between 15 and 64 years old, creating a potential "demographic dividend" where a large working-age population can drive economic growth. However, the number of children is declining; the under-5 population peaked in 2007 and the under-15 cohort peaked in 2011.
Between 1975 and 2010, the population doubled to 1.2 billion. While the population continues to grow, the rate has slowed significantly from 2.3% annually to roughly 0.89% in 2023. Current projections suggest the population will reach 1.7 billion by 2050.
India is highly diverse, hosting thousands of ethnic groups and four major language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, and Tibeto-Burman. The country also includes linguistic isolates such as Nihali and Burushaski, and distinct minority communities including Anglo-Indians and Siddi.
The human sex ratio has shown an upward trend after decades of decline, reaching 943 females per 1,000 males in 2011 and estimated at 1,060 males per 1,000 females in 2023.

History

Prehistory to early 19th century

The following table lists estimates for the population of India from prehistory up until 1820. It includes estimates and growth rates according to five economic historians, along with interpolated estimates and overall aggregate averages derived from their estimates.

Population of India over time

India's population has changed significantly due to migrations, technological advancements, and societal developments. Below is a table of historical population estimates:
Estimated Population of India

Era	Year	Estimated Population	Growth Rate
Classical India	100 AD	52,748,932	+2.8%
Classical India	200 AD	54,902,817	+4.1%
Classical India	300 AD	57,654,213	+5.0%
Classical India	400 AD	60,834,921	+5.5%
Classical India	500 AD	64,291,782	+5.7%
Early Medieval India	600 AD	68,102,304	+5.9%
Early Medieval India	700 AD	71,837,610	+5.5%
Early Medieval India	800 AD	75,983,210	+5.8%
Early Medieval India	900 AD	81,274,936	+7.0%
Early Medieval India	1000 AD	86,732,843	+6.7%
Delhi Sultanate	1100 AD	91,403,287	+5.4%
Delhi Sultanate	1200 AD	96,289,634	+5.4%
Delhi Sultanate	1300 AD	101,984,726	+5.9%
Delhi Sultanate	1400 AD	111,209,832	+9.1%
Mughal Empire	1500 AD	121,847,294	+9.6%
Mughal Empire	1600 AD	136,204,781	+11.8%
Mughal Empire	1700 AD	161,874,263	+18.9%
Mughal Empire	1800 AD	186,432,976	+15.2%
Colonial Period	1810	190,000,000	+2.1%
Colonial Period	1820	195,000,000	+2.6%
Colonial Period	1830	200,000,000	+2.6%
Colonial Period	1840	205,000,000	+2.5%
Colonial Period	1850	210,000,000	+2.4%
British Raj	1860	215,000,000	+2.4%
British Raj	1870	220,000,000	+2.3%
British Raj	1881	253,891,821	+15.4%
British Raj	1891	287,223,431	+13.1%
British Raj	1901	317,318,032	+10.5%
British Raj	1911	317,369,222	+0.02%
British Raj	1921	318,866,673	+0.46%
British Raj	1931	337,515,000	+5.8%
British Raj	1941	389,000,000	+15.3%
Post-independence India	1951	361,088,000	-7.18%
Post-independence India	1961	439,235,000	+21.7%
Post-independence India	1971	548,159,652	+24.8%
Post-independence India	1981	683,329,097	+24.7%
Post-independence India	1991	846,387,888	+24.0%
Post-independence India	2001	1,028,610,328	+21.5%
Post-independence India	2011	1,210,854,977	+17.9%
Post-independence India	2021	1,390,537,387	+14.9%
Post-independence India	-	-	-

The population grew from the South Asian Stone Age in 10,000 BC to the Maurya Empire in 200 BC at a steadily increasing growth rate, before population growth slowed down in the classical era up to 500 AD, and then became largely stagnant during the early medieval era era up to 1000 AD. The population growth rate then increased in the late medieval era from 1000 to 1500.
Under the Mughal Empire, India experienced a high economic and demographic upsurge, due to Mughal agrarian reforms that intensified agricultural production. 15% of the population lived in urban centres, higher than the percentage of the population in 19th-century British India and contemporary Europe up until the 19th century. These estimates by Abraham Eraly and Paolo Malanima have been criticised by Tim Dyson, who considers them exaggerations and estimates urbanisation of the Mughal Empire to be less than 9% of the population.
Under the reign of Akbar in 1600, the Mughal Empire's urban population was up to 17 million people, larger than the urban population in Europe. By 1700, Mughal India had an urban population of 23 million people, larger than British India's urban population of 22.3 million in 1871. Nizamuddin Ahmad reported that, under Akbar's reign, Mughal India had 120 large cities and 3,200 townships. A number of cities in India had a population between a quarter-million and half-million people, with larger cities including Agra with up to 800,000 people and Dhaka with over 1 million people. Mughal India also had a large number of villages, with 455,698 villages by the time of Aurangzeb.

Late 19th century to early 20th century

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire years. Sources: Our World in Data and Gapminder Foundation.

Years	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889	1890	1902
Total Fertility Rate in India	5.95	5.92	5.89	5.86	5.82	5.79	4.38	5.76	5.76	5.75	5.75	5.75

Years	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930
Total Fertility Rate in India	5.761	5.77	5.78	5.79	5.8	5.81	5.82	5.83	5.85	5.86

Life expectancy from 1881 to 1950

Years	1881	1891	1901	1905	1911	1915	1921	1925	1931	1935	1941	1950
Life expectancy in India	25.4	24.3	23.5	24.0	23.2	24.0	24.9	27.6	29.3	31.0	32.6	35.4

The population of India under the British Raj according to censuses:

Census year	Population	Growth
1871
1881		6.3
1891		13.1
1901		2.2
1911		7.4
1921		1.2
1931		10.6
1941		10.2

Studies of India's population since 1881 have focused on such topics as total population, birth and death rates, geographic distribution, literacy, the rural and urban divide, cities of a million, and the three cities with populations over eight million: Delhi, Greater Mumbai, and Kolkata.
Mortality rates fell in the period 1920–45, primarily due to biological immunisation. Suggestions that it was the benefits of colonialism are refuted by academic thinking: "There can be no serious, informed belief... that... late colonial era mortality diminished and population grew rapidly because of improvements in income, living standards, nutrition, environmental standards, sanitation or health policies, nor was there a cultural transformation...".

Languages

Rank	Language	Language Family	Speakers	Speakers	Speakers	Speakers	Speakers
1	Hindi	Indo-Aryan	202,767,971	257,749,009	329,505,193	422,048,642	528,347,193
2	Bengali	Indo-Aryan	44,792,312	51,298,319	69,595,738	83,369,769	97,237,669
3	Telugu	Dravidian	44,756,923	50,624,611	66,017,615	74,002,856	81,127,740
4	Marathi	Indo-Aryan	41,765,190	49,452,922	62,481,681	71,936,894	83,026,680
5	Tamil	Dravidian	37,690,106	-	53,006,368	60,793,814	69,026,881
6	Urdu	Indo-Aryan	28,620,895	34,941,435	43,406,932	51,536,111	50,772,631
7	Gujarati	Indo-Aryan	25,865,012	33,063,267	40,695,370	46,091,617	55,492,554
8	Kannada	Dravidian	21,710,649	25,697,146	32,753,676	37,924,011	43,706,512
9	Malayalam	Dravidian	21,938,760	25,700,705	30,377,176	33,066,392	34,838,819
10	Odia	Indo-Aryan	19,863,198	23,021,528	28,061,313	33,017,446	37,521,324
11	Punjabi	Indo-Aryan	14,108,443	19,611,199	23,378,744	29,102,477	33,124,726
12	Assamese	Indo-Aryan	8,959,558	-	13,079,696	13,168,484	15,311,351
13	Maithili	Indo-Aryan	6,130,026	7,522,265	7,766,921	12,179,122	13,583,464
14	Bhili/Bhilodi Non-scheduled	Indo-Aryan	3,399,285	4,293,314	5,572,308	9,582,957	10,413,637
15	Santali	Austro-Asiatic	3,786,899	4,332,511	5,216,325	6,469,600	7,368,192
16	Kashmiri	Indo-Aryan	2,495,487	3,176,975	-	5,527,698	6,797,587
17	Nepali	Indo-Aryan	1,419,835	1,360,636	2,076,645	2,871,749	2,926,168
18	Gondi Non-scheduled	Dravidian	1,688,284	1,913,262	2,124,852	2,713,790	2,984,453
19	Sindhi	Indo-Aryan	1,676,875	2,044,389	2,122,848	2,535,485	2,772,264
20	Konkani	Indo-Aryan	1,508,432	1,570,108	1,760,607	2,489,015	2,256,502
21	Dogri	Indo-Aryan	1,299,143	1,530,616	-	2,282,589	2,596,767
22	Khandeshi Non-scheduled	Indo-Aryan	251,896	1,216,789	973,709	2,075,258	1,860,236
23	Kurukh Non-scheduled	Dravidian	1,235,665	1,333,670	1,426,618	1,751,489	1,988,350
24	Tulu Non-scheduled	Dravidian	1,158,419	1,417,224	1,552,259	1,722,768	1,846,427
25	Meiteilon	Sino-Tibetan	791,714	901,407	1,270,216	1,466,705	1,761,079
26	Bodo	Sino-Tibetan	556,576	-	1,221,881	1,350,478	1,482,929
27	Khasi Non-scheduled	Austro-Asiatic	479,028	628,846	912,283	1,128,575	1,431,344
28	Mundari Non-scheduled	Austro-Asiatic	771,253	742,739	861,378	1,061,352	1,128,228
29	Ho Non-scheduled	Austro-Asiatic	751,389	783,301	949,216	1,042,724	1,421,418
30	Tripuri Non-scheduled	Sino-Tibetan	372,579	502,067	694,940	854,023	1,011,294

According to the 2001 census, 41.03% of the Indians spoke Hindi natively, while the rest spoke Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Maithili, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and a variety of other languages. There are a total of 122 languages and 234 mother tongues spoken in India. Of these, 22 languages are specified in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution, while 100 are non-specified.
The table below excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state due to cancellation of census results.