Population 984,003,683 (July 1998 est.)

Age structure
0-14 years: 34% (male 174,578,403; female 164,755,937)
15-64 years: 61% (male 310,995,355; female 288,344,336)
65 years and over: 5% (male 23,051,278; female 22,278,374) (July 1998 est.)

Population growth rate 1.71% (1998 est.)

Birth rate 25.91 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Death rate 8.69 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Net migration rate -0.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)

Sex ratio
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.04 male(s)/female (1998 est.)

Infant mortality rate 63.14 deaths/1,000 live births (1998 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
total population: 62.9 years
male: 62.11 years
female: 63.73 years (1998 est.)

Total fertility rate 3.24 children born/woman (1998 est.)

Nationality
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian

Ethnic groups Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%

Religions Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%

Languages English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani a popular variant of Hindu/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern India
note: 24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible

Literacy
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 52%
male: 65.5%
female: 37.7% (1995 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding India on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of India People 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about India People 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.