Muslim Population Growth At 20-Year Low

By :  IndiaSpend
Update: 2015-08-27 03:30 GMT

While the overall population growth in the country was 17% in the 2001-2011 decade, Muslim population growth hit a 20-year low of 24.6% in 2011, according to Census data released recently.

Hindu population growth was down to 16.75% in the decade ended 2011.

In absolute numbers, there are 966 million Hindus (79.8%) and 172 million Muslims (14.2%) in the country as IndiaSpend reported earlier.

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Year Hindus Growth Rate Muslims Growth Rate
1901 194.4 29.9
1911 204.4 5.14 30.8 3.01
1921 203 -0.68 31.2 1.29
1931 224.4 10.54 35.8 14.74
1941 238.3 6.19 42.4 18.43
1951 303.5 27.36 35.4 -16.5
1961 366.5 20.75 46.9 32.48
1971 453.3 23.68 61.4 30.92
1981 562.4 24.07 80.3 30.78
1991 690.1 22.71 106.7 32.87
2001 827.6 19.92 138.2 29.52
2011 966.2 16.75 172.2 24.60

Source: IIPSIndiaCensus; figures in million

While the overall population growth of Muslims was down across the country, their share of population increased across all states.

Top 5 States/UTs With Muslim Population (in %)
State/UT 2001 2011 Percent Point Change
Lakshadweep 95.5 96.6 1.1
Jammu & Kashmir 67 68.3 1.3
Assam 30.9 34.2 3.3
West Bengal 25.2 27 1.8
Kerala 24.7 26.6 1.9

Source: Census 2011; Census 2001

The maximum decadal change was seen in Assam with share of population increasing 3.3 percent point to 34.2% from 30.9% in 2001.

Top 5 States/UTs With Hindu Population (in %)
State/UT 2001 2011 Percent Point Change
Himachal Pradesh 95.4 95.2 -0.2
Dadra/Nagar Haveli 93.5 93.9 0.4
Odisha 94.4 93.6 -0.8
Chhattisgarh 94.7 93.2 -1.5
Madhya Pradesh 91.1 90.9 -0.2

Source: Census 2011; Census 2001

The surprises here are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states – Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

All the states have witnessed a decline in proportion of Hindu population, and the proportion of Muslim population has increased in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

U.P Has Maximum Muslim Population

Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populous state of the country with 199 million people, has the most Muslims (38.4 million) in 2011.

West Bengal is the second highest with 24.6 million.

States 2001 2011 Growth rate % of Muslim population
Muslim Popul- ation Total Popul- ation Muslim Popul- ation Total Popul- ation
India 138.1 1028 172.2 1210 24.6
Uttar Pradesh 30.7 166.1 38.4 199.8 25.1
West Bengal 20.2 80.1 24.6 91.2 21.8
Bihar 13.7 82.9 17.5 104 27.9
Maha- rashtra 10.2 96.8 12.9 112.3 26.2
Assam 8.2 26.6 10.6 31.2 29.5
Kerala 7.8 31.8 8.8 33.4 12.8
Jammu & Kashmir 6.7 10.1 8.5 12.5 26.1
Andhra Pradesh 6.9 76.2 8 84.5 15.6
Karna- taka 6.4 52.8 7.8 61 22.1
Raja- sthan 4.7 56.5 6.2 68.5 29.8

Source: Census 2011; Census 2001

Rajasthan has seen the highest growth rate of Muslim population with 29.8%; population increased from 4.7 million in 2001 to 6.2 million in 2011.

UP was sixth in the country when it came to growth rate of Muslim population.

The lowest growth rate was seen in Kerala with 12.8%; population increased from 7.8 million to 8.8 million.

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