The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI) on 25 August 2015 released the data on Census 2011 on Population by Religious Communities. The distribution is total population by six major religious communities namely, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain besides Other Religions and Persuasions and Religion not stated.
As per the Census 2011, the Total Population in 2011 was 121.09 crores. Here is the list of Population by Religious Communities based on Census 2011:
| Religion | Population |
| Hindu | 96.63 crores (79.8%) |
| Muslim | 17.22 crores (14.2%) |
| Christian | 2.78 crores (2.3%) |
| Sikh | 2.08 crores (1.7%) |
| Buddhist | 0.84 crores (0.7%) |
| Jain | 0.45 crores (0.4%) |
| Other Religions & Persuasions | 0.79 crores (0.7%) |
| Religion Not Stated | 0.29 crores (0.2%) |
Proportion
The proportion of Hindu population to total population in 2011 has declined by 0.7 percentage point (PP) while the proportion of Sikh population has declined by 0.2 PP and the Buddhist population declined by 0.1 PP during the decade 2001-2011.
The proportion of Muslim population to total population has increased by 0.8 PP. There has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians and Jains.
Growth Rate
The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 percent. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was- Hindus at 16.8 percent; Muslim at 24.6 percent; Christian at 15.5 percent; Sikh at 8.4 percent; Buddhist at 6.1 percent and Jain at 5.4 percent.
The Muslim population grew at a faster rate than the Hindu population, but the gap between the two growth rates is narrowing fast. The data shows that between 2001 and 2011, Hindu population grew by 16.76 percent, while population of Muslims grew by 24.6 percent. The population of both communities grew much faster during the 1991-2001 with Hindus at 19.92 percent and Muslims at 29.52 percent.
The Muslim community has registered a moderate 0.8 percent growth to touch 17.22 crore between 2001 and 2011, up from 13.8 crore between 1991-2001, while Hindus population showed a decline by 0.7 percent at 96.63 crore during the period.
Though there is the decadal increase in share of Muslim population, however, their growth rate is lower than the previous decade 1991-2001.
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