NEW DELHI -- The proportion of the Muslim population in India has grown marginally from 2001 to 2011, according to latest data released by the government. On Tuesday, the NDA government released the data on population by religious communities as per the Census 2011, revealing that the Muslim share has risen by 0.8 percent, with 17.22 crore Muslims residing in India in 2011.
The same data also showed a 0.7 percent decline of the Hindu share in India's population, 0.2 percent for Sikhs and 0.1 percent for Buddhist groups. As per 2011 figures, the total Hindu population is 96.63 crores (79.8 per cent); Muslim 17.22 crores (14.2 per cent); Christian 2.78 crores (2.3 per cent); Sikh 2.08 crores (1.7 per cent); Buddhist 0.84 crores (0.7 per cent); Jain 0.45 crores (0.4 per cent), Other religions and persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7 per cent) and religion not stated 0.29 crores (0.2 per cent).
The data was released just ahead of the Bihar elections, where Muslim voters are expected to influence the outcome in 50 of the 243 assembly constituencies, reported Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile the caste-based data has yet not been made public by the government, despite increasingly vocal demands for its release.
As per the religious census data of 2011, released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner today, the total population in the country in 2011 was 121.09 crore.
As per 2001 census, India's total population was 102 crores of which Hindu population comprised of 82.75 crore (80.45 per cent) and Muslims were 13.8 crore (13.4 per cent).
The growth rate of population in the decade 2001-2011 was 17.7 per cent. The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was as Hindus: 16.8 per cent; Muslim: 24.6 per cent; Christian: 15.5 per cent; Sikh: 8.4 per cent; Buddhist: 6.1 per cent and Jain: 5.4 per cent.
(with PTI inputs)
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