Population of india, india's population, indian, population of india figures,

Having grown very slowly in earlier times, India’s population reached about 211 million by the first decennial census in 1871. The next five decades saw an alternating pattern of growth - relatively fast during one decade, slow or negative during the next - largely due to the occurrence of huge famines in the 1870s and 1890s, and the influenza epidemic of 1918. But despite these disasters the population reached approximately 251 million by 1921. And in each subsequent intercensal decade the scale of the population addition rose - from about 28 million during 1921-31 to 180 million during 1991-2001, a figure roughly equal to the total population of Indonesia in 1991.

In the past India's population was dominated by high mortality, from infectious and parasitic diseases, epidemics and famines. However, mortality improvement from around 1921 - which accelerated sharply after 1947 - led to an increasing concern with the high birth rate. As a result, in 1952 India became the first nation to adopt an official family planning programme. For much of the twentieth century the country pioneered new approaches to the mass provision of birth control. Nevertheless, although the birth rate has been falling since the 1960s, it was only during 1991-2001 that it fell significantly faster than the death rate - so bringing about a clear reduction in the rate of demographic growth.

Overall the period 1947-2001 saw a trebling of the population. Several of the basic features that characterise India's population have very deep roots. The Gangetic plain has been the demographic 'centre of gravity' of the Indian subcontinent for over two thousand years - and it will remain so for the foreseeable future. Similarly, the origins of the familiar north/south demographic divide probably date back equally far. Historical perspective also sheds light on the phenomenon of son preference, and helps to explain why the demographic transition is significantly more advanced in the country's south. Finally, India's middling rate of fertility decline since the 1960s accounts for its present still fairly young age structure - a feature which will ensure very considerable future population growth.

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