Census 2011 - Basics, Summary and Important Findings

CM Chandramauli was the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India for the 2011 Indian Census.

Census data was collected in 16 languages and the training manual was prepared in 18 languages.

In 2011, India and Bangladesh also conducted their first-ever joint census of areas along their border.

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India's total population stands at 121 crores, with a decadal growth of 17.7%, and growth of females (18.3%) was higher than that of males (17.1%).

India's population grew by 17.7% during 2001-11, against 21.5% in the previous decade.

Highest decadal growth in population has been recorded in Bihar (25.4%) while 14 states and Union Territories have recorded population growth above 20%.

Literacy rate in India in 2011 has increased by 8% to 73% in comparison to 64.8% in 2001.

The density of population in the country has also increased from 325 in 2001 to 382 in 2011 in per sq km.

The sex ratio of population in the country in 2011 stands at 943 female against 1000 males, which is 10% more than the last census when the number female per thousand male stood at 933.

Child population in the age of 0 to 6 years has seen an increase of 0.4% to 164.5 million in 2011 from 163.8 million in 2001.

There has been a decline of 8% in the sex ratio of 0-6 age group.

Among the States, Goa is now the most urbanized State with a "62.2%" urban population, a significant increase since 2001 when the urban population of Goa was 49.8%.

Dibang valley district of Arunachal Pradesh displays the lowest population in the country with a population of 7,948.

Thane district of Maharashtra displays the highest population in the country with a population of 1.11 Crore.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for India as per the census 2011 was 2.4 per woman.

India's national Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has fallen below 2.0 for the first time, as per the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The SC population in India now stands at 20.14 crore, which is 20% more than the last census. The ST population stands at 10.43 crore in 2011 - 23.7% more than 2001.


Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Lakshwadeep and Andaman and Nicobar have no scheduled castes among their population.

For the first time, a "No religion" category was added in the 2011 census. 28.7 Lakh (0.24%) were classified as people belonging to "No Religion" in India in the 2011 census.

There are six religions in India that have been awarded "National Minority" status - Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis.

The median age increased for men from 22.6 (2001) to 23.5 (2011) and for women from 18.2 (2001) to 19.2 (2011).

Hinduism (79.80%) > Islam (14.23%) > Christianity (2.30%) > Sikhism (1.72%)

Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India.

According to 2011 Census, 57.1% of Indian population know Hindi, in which 43.63% of Indian people have declared Hindi as their native language or mother tongue.

Bhili/Bhilodi was the most spoken unscheduled language with 1.04 crore speakers, followed by Gondi with 0.29 crore speakers.

The number of bilingual speakers in India is 31.49 crore, which is 26% of the population in 2011.

Hindi, Bengali speakers are India's least multilingual groups.

Hindi (57.1%) > English (10.6%) > Bengali (8.9%) > Marathi (18.2%)

Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011

The Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) was conducted for the 2011 Census of India.

The SECC 2011 was conducted in all states and union territories of India and the first findings were revealed on 3 July 2015 by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

SECC 2011 is also the first paperless census in India conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government in 640 districts.

The rural development ministry has taken a decision to use the SECC data in all its programmes such as MGNREGA, National Food Security Act, and the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana.

SECC 2011 was the first caste-based census since 1931 Census of India, and it was launched on 29 June 2011 from the Sankhola village of Hazemara block in West Tripura district.

The first caste census was conducted in the year 1881.

Data was also collected on manual scavenging and transgender count in India.

SECC 2011 has three census components which were conducted by three separate authorities, but under the overall coordination of Department of Rural Development in the GoI:

1) Census in Rural Area has been conducted by the Department of Rural Development.
2) Census in Urban areas is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
3) Caste Census is under the administrative control of Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.


SECC data 2011 has been referred for analysis by an expert group, headed by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya.

This expert group is set up by the ministries of social justice and tribal development, before making public.

The results of SECC 2011 were released in 2015.

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According to Census 2011 Lakhimpur Kheri is the largest and Bhadohi (Sant Kabir Nagar) is the smallest district in Uttar Pradesh.

According to current data "Hapur" is the smallest district in Uttar Pradesh.







According to Census-2011, Uttar Pradesh is 5th largest state in country (currently 4th).

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