2021 Census of India

16th Census of India
2021
File:2021 Census of India logo.png Our Census, Our Future
General information
Country	India

The 2021 Census of India, also the 16th Indian Census, will be taken in 2021. The 15th Indian Census taken in 2011, attempted to estimate the population based on Socio-Economic and Caste Status for the first time since 1931. However, as the enumeration was based on recording the respondents' declaration, it led to creation of hundreds of thousands of caste/subcaste categories. For the 16th Indian census, the government is instead considering enumeration based on a list of educationally or socially disadvantaged castes (known as Other Backward Class) reported by each state. However, in February 2020, the BJP government rejected the demand for OBC data as part of the 2021 census.

In April 2019, a data user conference was held and it was announced that 330,000 enumerators would be enlisted and that they would be encouraged to use their own smart phones, although a paper option will also be available, which the enumerators will then need to submit electronically. It was further announced that house listing will be conducted between April and September 2020, with actual enumeration in February 2021 and a revision round in March. The reference date will be 1 March 2021 in most of the country and 1 October 2020 for Jammu and Kashmir and some areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

In September 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that the 2021 national census would be done fully digitally through a mobile phone application. 2021 census will be carried out in 16 languages. In February 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹ 3,768 crore for the census in the 2021 Union budget of India. It has been delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India with preliminary results expected in 2023–24.

Caste Enumeration in Census

In September 2018, the then Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, announced that the 2021 census would have Other Backward Class (OBC) data. Several state legislative assemblies passed resolutions for collecting OBC data including the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Odisha Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Assembly, while the government of Uttar Pradesh, rejected the opposition's demand to pass such a resolution. On 29 February 2020, central government refused to conduct caste census despite demands from states. Despite Centre's rejection, Maharashtra legislators were adamant for caste based census at least in the state. Protest march in support of OBC census was carried out in Jammu and Kashmir. Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale also demanded carrying of census counting every single caste in India.

Information

House-listings

The House-listing schedule contained 31 questions.

Building number Census house number Predominant material of floor, wall and roof of the census house Ascertain use of actual house Condition of the census house Household number Total number of persons normally residing in the household Name of the head of the household Sex of the head Caste status of Head (SC or ST or others)

Ownership status of the house Number of dwelling rooms Number of married couple the household Main source of drinking water Availability of drinking water source Main source of lighting Access to latrine Type of latrine Wastewater outlet Availability of Bathing facility

Availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection Main fuel used for cooking Radio/Transistor Television Access to Internet Computer/Laptop Telephone/Mobile/Smart phone Bicycle/Scooter/Motor cycle/Moped Car/Jeep/Van Main cereal consumed in the household Mobile number.

Population enumeration

The Population enumeration.

NPR

National Population Register will be linked to this census with preparations beginning from April 2020. NPR will be conducted along with the first phase of Census between April to September 2020. On December 24, 2019, the Central Government approved ₹ 3,941 crore for updating the NPR across India.

Religious demographics

The religious data on India Census 2011 was released by the Government of India on 25 August 2015. Hindus are 79.8% (966.3 million) while Sikhs are 20.8 million comprising 1.72% of the population, Muslims are 14.23% (172.2 million) in India. and Christians are 2.30% (28.7 million). According to the 2011 Census of India, there are 57,264 Parsis in India. For the first time, a "No religion" category was added in the 2011 census. 2.87 million were classified as people belonging to "No Religion" in India in the 2011 census 0.24% of India's population of 1.21 billion. Given below is the decade-by-decade religious composition of India until the 2011 census. There are six religions in India that have been awarded "National Minority" status – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis. Sunnis, Shias, Bohras, Agakhanis and Ahmadiyyas were identified as sects of Islam in India. As per 2011 census, six major faiths- Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains make up over 99.4% of India's 1.21 billion population, while "other religions, persuasions" (ORP) count is 8.2 million. Among the ORP faiths, six faiths- 4.957 million-strong Sarnaism, 1.026 million-strong Gond, 506,000-strong Sari, Donyi-Polo (302,000) in Arunachal Pradesh, Sanamahism (222,000) in Manipur, Khasi (138,000) in Meghalaya dominate. Maharashtra is having the highest number of atheists in the country with 9,652 such people, followed by Kerala.

Population trends for major religious groups in India (1951–2021)

Religious group	Population % 1951	Population % 1961	Population % 1971	Population % 1981	Population % 1991	Population % 2001	Population % 2011	Population % 2021
Hinduism	84.1%	83.45%	82.73%	82.30%	81.53%	80.46%	79.80%	TBD
Islam	9.8%	10.69%	11.21%	11.75%	12.61%	13.43%	14.23%	TBD
Christianity	2.3%	2.44%	2.60%	2.44%	2.32%	2.34%	2.30%	TBD
Sikhism	1.79%	1.79%	1.89%	1.92%	1.94%	1.87%	1.72%	TBD
Buddhism	0.74%	0.74%	0.70%	0.70%	0.77%	0.77%	0.70%	TBD
Jainism	0.46%	0.46%	0.48%	0.47%	0.40%	0.41%	0.37%	TBD
Zoroastrianism	0.13%	0.09%	0.09%	0.09%	0.08%	0.06%	n/a	TBD
Other religions / No religion	0.8%	0.8%	0.41%	0.42%	0.44%	0.8%	0.9%	TBD

Language demographics

Main article: Languages of India

Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of "Hindi languages". According to 2011 Census, 57.1% of Indian population know Hindi, in which 43.63% of Indian people have declared Hindi as their native language or mother tongue. The language data was released on 26 June 2018. Bhili/Bhilodi was the most spoken unscheduled language with 10.4 million speakers, followed by Gondi with 2.9 million speakers. 96.71% of India's population speaks one of the 22 scheduled languages as their mother tongue in the 2011 census.

The 2011 census report on bilingualism and trilingualism, which provides data on the two languages in order of preference in which a person is proficient other than the mother tongue, was released in September 2018. The number of bilingual speakers in India is 314.9 million, which is 26% of the population in 2011. 7% of Indian population is trilingual. Hindi, Bengali speakers are India's least multilingual groups.

Numbers regarding languages spoken available in the 2011 Indian Census data may not reflect actual data in India due to how the data was collected, with participants being allowed to give any response they wished for what languages they spoke.

First, Second, and Third languages by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)

Language	First language speakers	First language speakers as a percentage of total population	Second language speakers	Third language speakers	Total speakers	Total speakers as a percentage of total population
Hindi	528,347,193	43.63	139,000,000	24,000,000	692,000,000	57.1
English	259,678	0.02	83,000,000	46,000,000	129,000,000	10.6
Bengali	97,237,669	8.3	9,000,000	1,000,000	107,000,000	8.9
Marathi	83,026,680	7.09	13,000,000	3,000,000	99,000,000	8.2
Telugu	81,127,740	6.93	12,000,000	1,000,000	95,000,000	7.8
Tamil	69,026,881	5.89	7,000,000	1,000,000	77,000,000	6.3
Gujarati	55,492,554	4.74	4,000,000	1,000,000	60,000,000	5
Urdu	50,772,631	4.34	11,000,000	1,000,000	63,000,000	5.2
Kannada	43,706,512	3.73	14,000,000	1,000,000	59,000,000	4.94
Odia	37,521,324	3.2	5,000,000	390,000	43,000,000	3.56
Malayalam	34,838,819	2.97	500,000	210,000	36,000,000	2.9
Punjabi	33,124,726	2.83	2,230,000	720,000	36,600,000	3
Sanskrit	24,821	<0.01	1,230,000	1,960,000	3,190,000	0.19

Literacy

Any one above age 7 who can read and write in any language with an ability to understand was considered a literate. In censuses before 1991, children below the age 5 were treated as illiterates. The literacy rate taking the entire population into account is termed as "crude literacy rate", and taking the population from age 7 and above into account is termed as "effective literacy rate". As per the 2011 Census of India,the "Effective literacy rate" increased to a total of 74.04% with 82.14% of the males and 65.46% of the females being literate.

S.No.	Census year	Total (%)	Male (%)	Female (%)
1	1901	5.35	9.83	0.60
2	1911	5.92	10.56	1.05
3	1921	7.16	12.21	1.81
4	1931	9.50	15.59	2.93
5	1941	16.10	24.90	7.30
6	1951	16.67	24.95	9.45
7	1961	24.02	34.44	12.95
8	1971	29.45	39.45	18.69
9	1981	36.23	46.89	24.82
10	1991	42.84	52.74	32.17
11	2001	64.83	75.26	53.67
12	2011	74.04	82.14	65.46
13	2021	TBD	TBD	TBD

See also

• Seventh National Population Census of the People's Republic of China
• 2020 United States census