Population and Literacy

Population growth in India was 1.5% in 2006, compared to 1.72% in 1997. India does not appear in the top ten most densely populated countries of the world.

Current Population for All Countries: 2007
Source: United Nations, World Population prospects and U.S. Dept. of Commerce
(in thousands)

Rank	Country	2007
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	China India USA Indonesia Brazil Pakistan Bangladesh Russia Nigeria Japan	1,321,852 1,129,866 301,139 234,693 190,010 164,741 150,448 141,377 135,031 127,433

Birth rate: 22.69 births/1,000 population (Ranked 86th in the world)
Death rate: 6.58 deaths/1,000 population
Total fertility rate: 2.81 children born/woman (Ranked 86th in the world)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 31.8%
15-64 years: 63.1%
65 years and over: 5.1%

Median age of population:
total: 24.8 years
male: 24.5 years
female: 25.2 years

Overall life expectancy at birth was about 68.59 years in 2007 compared to 64 years in the 2002, compared with 60 years in mid-1990's and 32 years in 1941.

The infant mortality rate declined from 151 to an estimated 88 per 1000 live births between 1965 and 1995. Infant mortality rate was 34.61 deaths per 1000 live births, in 2007. India is ranked 74th in the world for IMR.

According to a world bank report, 80% of India's six-year old's are enrolled in school, as of 2002. Literacy rate in India has improved from 52.21% in 1991 to 65.38% in 2001.

For a change, there’s good news on poverty in India. The percentage of Indians below the poverty line has dropped to 21.8%, as reported by National Sample Survey of the Planning Commission of India. That’s down from 26.1% for the fiscal year ending in March 2000, but that still means there are 238.5 million people living below the poverty line across India — 170.3 million in rural areas and 68.2 million in urban areas.

The study measured poverty for the fiscal year ending in March 2005. It used a measurement called the mixed recall period, under which a consumer recalls spending in five categories, like durable goods, institutional medical expenses, clothing and education from a 365-day period.

Population of the World's Largest Cities
Sources: United Nations, Dept. for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis

Rank	City, Country	Pop. (thousands) 2000	Pop. (thousands) 1995
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.	Tokyo, Japan Mexico City, Mexico Mumbai (Bombay), India Sao Paulo, Brazil New York City, U.S. Lagos, Nigeria Los Angeles, U.S. Calcutta, India Shanghai, China Buenos Aires, Argentina Dhaka, Bangladesh Karachi, Pakistan Delhi, India Jakarta, Indonesia Osaka, Japan	26,444 18,131 18,066 17,755 16,640 13,427 13,140 12,918 12,887 12,560 12,317 11,794 11,695 11,018 11,013	26,959 16,562 15,138 16,533 16,321 10,287 12,410 11,923 13,584 11,802 - - 9,948 - 10,609

Notes:
The figures given here are United Nations estimates and projections,as revised in 1996, for "urban agglomerations"----that is, contiguous dnsely populated urban areas, not demarcated by administrative boundaries. These figures may not corresond to figures for cities in other parts of The World Almanac
(1) Denotes percentage of the total population of the country in which the city is located. (2) Denotes percentage of the total urban population of the country in which the city is located.
(-) Denotes numbers unknown for the year 1995

Population break-up in the USA, 1990 census
Source: US Bureau of Census
Results for 2000 census not yet declared

All persons	Number
White Black Hispanics American Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Asian Indian Korean Vietnamese Hawaiian Samoan Guamanian Other Asian Other races	199,686,070 29,986,060 22,354059 1,959,234 1,645,472 1,406,770 847,562 815,447 798,849 614,547 211,014 62,964 49,345 821,692 9,804,847

The World's Refugees (in India), 2000
Source: The World Refugee survery, 2001