Multilingualism in India


The Constitution of India designates the official languages of India as Hindi and English. The number of bilingual speakers in India is 314.9 million, which is 26% of the population in 2011.

Multilingualism

Hindi

Hindi is one of the official languages of India and had 528 million native speakers as of the 2011 Census. About 139 million Indians speak Hindi as a second language and 24 million speak it as their third language.
LanguageFirst language
speakers
First language
speakers as a percentage
of total population
Second language
speakers
Third language
speakers
Total speakersTotal speakers as a
percentage of total
population
Hindi528,347,19343.63139,000,00024,000,000692,000,00057.1
English259,6780.0283,000,00046,000,000129,000,00010.6
Bengali97,237,6698.39,000,0001,000,000107,000,0008.9
Marathi83,026,6807.0913,000,0003,000,00099,000,0008.2
Telugu81,127,7406.9312,000,0001,000,00095,000,0007.8
Tamil69,026,8815.897,000,0001,000,00077,000,0006.3
Gujarati55,492,5544.744,000,0001,000,00060,000,0005
Urdu50,772,6314.3411,000,0001,000,00063,000,0005.2
Kannada43,706,5123.7314,000,0001,000,00059,000,0004.94
Odia37,521,3243.25,000,000390,00043,000,0003.56
Malayalam34,838,8192.97500,000210,00036,000,0002.9
Punjabi33,124,7262.832,230,000720,00036,600,0003
Assamese15,311,3511.267,488,153740,40223,539,9061.94
Sanskrit001,230,0001,960,0003,190,0000.19

Multilingualism by state

Combined percentages of first, second and third language speakers of Hindi and English in India from the 2011 Census.
File:Trilingual Signboard at Bhubaneswar Railway Station Ticket Counter.jpg|thumb|350px|Trilingualism is common in Railway Stations of India. This signboard of a ticket counter in Bhubaneswar Railway Station has text in Odia, Hindi and English.
File:Trilingual signboard in the Imphal International Airport displaying in Meitei, Hindi and English languages.jpg|thumb|350px|Multilingualism is also common in the international airports in India. The signboard is displayed in the Imphal International Airport in Meitei, Hindi and English.
State or union territoryHindiEnglish
India57.11%10.62%
Andaman and Nicobar Islands79.87%21.94%
Andhra Pradesh 12.59%13.06%
Arunachal Pradesh62.76%23.08%
Assam25.24%8.05%
Bihar89.37%2.72%
Chandigarh94.05%41.62%
Chhattisgarh93.64%2.29%
Dadra and Nagar Haveli57.50%10.34%
Daman and Diu76.19%15.38%
Delhi96.75%31.72%
Goa53.34%41.80%
Gujarat43.63%12.44%
Haryana95.34%15.59%
Himachal Pradesh96.57%10.64%
Jammu and Kashmir 38.00%15.98%
Jharkhand85.43%5.15%
Karnataka12.27%11.83%
Kerala9.12%20.15%
Lakshadweep17.87%19.30%
Madhya Pradesh95.74%5.44%
Maharashtra52.09%14.32%
Manipur18.44%31.62%
Meghalaya13.95%15.61%
Mizoram7.01%15.50%
Nagaland15.89%32.57%
Odisha18.76%17.23%
Puducherry3.87%28.10%
Punjab51.04%30.05%
Rajasthan95.04%4.55%
Sikkim47.96%27.69%
Tamil Nadu2.11%18.49%
Tripura9.95%7.53%
Uttar Pradesh97.40%6.42%
Uttarakhand97.19%8.36%
West Bengal13.83%6.70%