The government on Tuesday released religion based census data from 2011.
The population of India stood at 121.09 crore, with the data indicating moderate decline in population for Hindus and a marginal increase in Muslims’ population.
Muslims’ population grew by 0.8 percent to touch 17.22 crore between 2001 and 2011, while after a 0.7 percent decline, Hindus’ population stood at 96.63 crore during the period, the census data said
Hindus formed 79.8% of the total population, while Muslims constituted 14.2% of total population with other minority groups such as Sikhs and Buddhists showing small decline in population share with 1.7% and 0.7% respectively. Jain(0.4%) and Christian(2.3%) population has remained stable.
Overall the country’s population grew by 17.7 percent to 102 crore in 2011.