Indian census pegs population at 1.21 billion
India’s population is now pegged at 1.21 billion, an increase of more than 181 million in the last 10 years, the Hindu newspaper reports, citing the provisional 2011 Census report released on Thursday.
The population — which comprises 623.7 million males and 586.5 million females — is almost equal to the combined population of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan, the paper said.
The Hindu cited the report as saying that India's population increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011, but the growth rate in 2011 has slowed to 17.64 percent in comparison to 21.15 per cent in 2001.
Disturbingly, the child sex ratio in 2011 is 914 girls to 1,000 boys — the lowest since Independence in 1947, the paper said.
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