Primary Census Abstract 2011: Bihar and West Bengal are the most Populated States of India

Primary Census Abstract 2011 released on 30 April 2013 by the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at a function that was organised by the office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India reported that Bihar and West Bengal are the two Indian states that have breached the 1000 mark in population density.  

Bihar reported a population density of 1106 people per square kilometer and is followed by the neighboring state West Bengal with 1028 people per square kilometer. In 2001, Bihar was placed at the second position in the chart of population density with 881 people every square kilometer and it followed West Bengal that had 903 people per square kilometer. By breaking the 1000 mark the two states have become even more populated than Bangladesh.

The population density of Bangladesh is 964, whereas of India it is 382 as per the preliminary report of the Population and Housing Census of Bangladesh in 2011. Bangladesh reports to have the highest population density of the world with an area of 147570 square kilometer.

Definition of Population Density: It is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume i.e. the number of people per sq km area.

Some of the salient features of the released data

• Over a period of one decade form 2001-2011, population of India has gone up by 181.96 million people in absolute numbers to 1.21 billion. In these ten years, the population has grown up by 17.7 percent against the 21.5 percent of the previous decade.
• As per the latest census about 2/3rd of the total population of India lives in rural India with 833.5 million people residing in rural India and 377.1 million people in urban areas.
• Density of population per square kilometer is 382 persons against the 325 persons recorded in the census that was measured in 2001.
• The 2011 census recoded 164.5 million children in the age group of 0-6 years, while in 2001 the number was 163.8 million children. The child population over a period of one decade has grown by 0.4 percent.
• The sex ration of male and female per 1000 people has gone up slightly to 943 females from 933 females recorded in 2001.
• In the 2011 census, 201.4 million people were reported to belong from scheduled castes against the 166.6 people in 2001 census. Thus the population of SC’s grew by 20.8 percent. Similarly the population of Scheduled Tribes has gone up to 104.3 million in 2011 from 84.3 million that was recorded in 2001.
• Number of literates in 2011 is 763.5 million against the 560.7 million in 2001.