Tuesday 25 August 2015

India Population issues

Muslim population grows marginally faster, Census 2011 data show

Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
Updated: Aug 25, 2015 18:56 IST



According to Census 2011, the population of Muslims is growing marginally faster than other religions. (HT Photo)

The NDA government released the data on population by religious communities from Census 2011 which showed the proportion of Muslims to the total population is growing marginally faster than that of other religions.

Critics questioned the timing of the release of the data just weeks ahead of polls in Bihar, where Muslims can influence the outcome in about 50 of the 243 assembly constituencies.

According to an official statement, the proportion of Hindus in the total population has declined by 0.7 percentage point, Sikhs by 0.2 percentage points and Buddhists by 0.1 percentage points during 2001-2011. This is the first time that the proportion of Hindus has fallen below the 80% mark.

The share of Muslims in the total population of 121.09 crore increased by 0.8 percentage points. There has been no significant change in the proportion of Christians and Jains.

Earlier, the government used to provide religion-wise break-up of population data. The practice was discontinued in 2011 because of a controversy that followed the 2001 Census, which showed a relatively high growth of Muslim population primarily on account of the inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir. The comparison was skewed because the militancy-hit state was not covered in the headcount for 1991.

On Tuesday, the 2011 data were released by sex and residence up to sub-districts and towns.

Of the total population in 2011, the number of Hindus was 96.63 crores (79.8%); Muslims 17.22 crores (14.2%); Christians 2.78 crores (2.3%); Sikhs 2.08 crores (1.7%); Buddhists 0.84 crores (0.7%); Jains 0.45 crores (0.4%), Other Religions and Persuasions (ORP) 0.79 crores (0.7%) and Religion Not Stated category 0.29 crores (0.2%). The growth rate of the total population during 2001-2011 was 17.7%.

The growth rate of population of the different religious communities in the same period was: 16.8% for Hindus; 24.6% for Muslims; 15.5% for Christians; 8.4% for Sikhs; 6.1% for Buddhists and 5.4% for Jains.


http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/muslim-population-grows-marginally-faster-census-2011-data-show/article1-1384095.aspx




India will have biggest Muslim population by 2050, Islam could catch up with Christianity

Rezaul H Laskar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
Updated: Apr 03, 2015 15:00 IST





Muslims are projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population growth. (AP Photo)

Hinduism will become the world’s third largest religion by 2050 while India will overtake Indonesia as the country with the largest Muslim population, according to a new study.

The Hindu population worldwide will rise by 34%, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion by 2050, the Pew Research Center’s study on “The Future of World Regions” projected.

Hindus will make up 14.9% of the world’s total population, behind Christians (31.4%) and Muslims (29.7%), while people unaffiliated to any religious group will account for 13.2%, the study said.



“By 2050, the study projects India to be the country with the largest number of Muslims – more than 310 million – even though Hindus will continue to make up a solid majority of India’s population (77%), while Muslims remain a minority (18%),” Pew Research Center said.

“Indonesia will have the third-largest number of Muslims, with Pakistan ranking second,” it said.

Muslims are projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population growth while Hindus and Christians are projected to roughly keep pace with growth trends, the study said.

“Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion,” it said.



The report predicted that by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in 2010, compared to 2.17 billion Christians.

If current trends continue, Islam will become the world’s most popular faith after 2070, it said.

“The farther into the future we look, the more uncertainty exists, which is why the projections stop at 2050. But if they are extended into the second half of this century, the projections forecast Muslims and Christians to be roughly equal in number around 2070, with Muslims the slightly larger group after that year,” the organisation said.

By 2050, Muslims will make up about 10% of Europe’s population, up from 5.9% in 2010.

Over the same period, the number of Hindus in Europe is expected to roughly double, from a little under 1.4 million (0.2% of Europe’s population) to nearly 2.7 million (0.4%), mainly as a result of immigration, it said.

In North America, Hindus are expected to nearly double in decades ahead, from 0.7% in 2010 to 1.3% in 2050, when migration is included in projection models. Without migration, the Hindu share of the region’s population will remain the same.

“In the US, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, with corresponding rises of religious ‘nones’ as well as Muslims, Hindus and others. At mid-century, Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion in the US: Muslims are projected to be more numerous than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion,” the organisation said.

Buddhism is the only faith that is not expected to increase its followers, due to an ageing population and stable fertility rates in Buddhist countries such as China, Japan and Thailand.

The projections considered fertility rates, trends in youth population growth and religious conversion statistics.


(With agency inputs)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-will-surpass-indonesia-to-have-biggest-muslim-population-by-2050/article1-1333402.aspx


India to be most populous nation by 2022, says UN report

Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
Updated: Jul 31, 2015 01:33 IST


Commuters walk inside a metro station in New Delhi. India's population is set to pass China's in size around 2022, according to the United Nations report released Wednesday, July 29. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

India is on course to be the world’s most populous nation by 2022, surpassing China sooner than previously estimated, according to the UN’s 2015 Revised World Population Prospect report.

The estimates forecast a remarkable quickening of India’s population growth between 2015 and 2050, while China’s is projected to remain flat and then start declining.

“Within seven years, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China,” said the new report, which updates the UN’s previous demographic data unveiled two years ago. In its earlier version, the report said India would overtake China in population size only by 2028.

Half of the world’s population growth during the period will be concentrated in just nine countries, including India, the report said.

Compared to a stable Chinese population until 2030, India’s would keep growing for several decades and at a faster clip. In 2030, India would be home to 1.5 billion and a staggering 1.7 billion in 2050. The country’s population will rise despite a fall in its fertility rates, mainly because of its mostly poor but younger population in states such as Bihar and UP.

The population pressures mean the country has to prepare to deal with the stress and also reap what economists call India’s current “demographic dividend”, or a positive population scenario of more younger, employable people than old.

“The concentration of population growth in the poorest countries presents its own set of challenges, making it more difficult to eradicate poverty and inequality, to combat hunger and malnutrition, and to expand educational enrolment and health systems, all of which are crucial to the success of the new sustainable development agenda,” said John Wilmoth, director of the UN’s population division, releasing the report on Wednesday.

Overall, the world’s population is projected to be 8.5 billion by 2030.


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