According to the latest census data, Lakshadweep, the island union territory had the highest share of Muslim population in the country, where 97 percent of its population identified as followers of the Islamic faith. Jammu & Kashmir ranked second at 68 percent during the same time period. With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Islam makes up the highest share among minority faiths in the country.

With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Islam makes up the highest share among minority faiths in the country. According to the Indian census of 2011, the Muslim population in Uttar Pradesh more than 35 million, making it the state with the most Muslims.

Socio-economic conditions of Muslims
Muslims seem to lag behind every other religious community in India in terms of living standards, financial stability, education and other aspects, thereby showing poor performance in most of the fields. According to a national survey, 17 percent of the Muslims were categorized under the lowest wealth index, which indicates poor socio-economic conditions.

Growth of Muslim population in India
Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions worldwide. According to India’s census, the Muslim population has witnessed a negative decadal growth of more than 16 percent from 1951 to 1960, presumably due to the partitions forming Pakistan and Bangladesh. The population showed a positive and steady growth since 1961, making up 14 percent of the total population of India . Even though people following Islam were estimated to grow significantly, they would still remain a minority in India compared to 1.3 billion Hindus by 2050.

India Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Urban data was reported at 68,740,419.000 Person in 2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 49,393,496.000 Person for 2001. India Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Urban data is updated yearly, averaging 59,066,957.500 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 68,740,419.000 Person in 2011 and a record low of 49,393,496.000 Person in 2001. India Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Urban data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Census of India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE001: Census: Population: by Religion.

According to India's last census in 2011, about 14.2 percent of the total population identified as Muslims. This was an increase from about ten percent in 1951. Overall, India has been a religiously pluralistic and multiethnic democracy with people of several faiths.

It was estimated that by 2050, India's Muslim population would grow by 76 percent compared to 2010. For followers of the Hindu faith, this change stood at 33 percent. According to this projection, the south Asian country would be home not just to the world's majority of Hindus, but also Muslims by this time period. Regardless, the latter would continue to remain a minority within the country at 18 percent, with 77 percent or 1.3 billion Hindus at the forefront by 2050.

In 2022, Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims worldwide with around 241.5 million. This was followed with around 225.6 million Muslims in Pakistan and 211.16 million Muslims in India.

Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Uttarakhand data was reported at 1,406,825.000 Person in 03-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,012,141.000 Person for 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Uttarakhand data is updated decadal, averaging 1,209,483.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 03-01-2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,406,825.000 Person in 03-01-2011 and a record low of 1,012,141.000 Person in 03-01-2001. Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim: Uttarakhand data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE003: Census: Population: by Religion: Muslim.

India Census: Population: by Religion: Hindu: Male data was reported at 498,306,968.000 Person in 2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 428,678,554.000 Person for 2001. India Census: Population: by Religion: Hindu: Male data is updated yearly, averaging 463,492,761.000 Person from Mar 2001 (Median) to 2011, with 2 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 498,306,968.000 Person in 2011 and a record low of 428,678,554.000 Person in 2001. India Census: Population: by Religion: Hindu: Male data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Census of India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Demographic – Table IN.GAE001: Census: Population: by Religion.

Islam is the major religion in many African countries, especially in the north of the continent. In Comoros, Libya, Western Sahara, at least 99 percent of the population was Muslim as of 202. These were the highest percentages on the continent. However, also in many other African nations, the majority of the population was Muslim. In Egypt, for instance, Islam was the religion of 79 percent of the people. Islam and other religions in Africa Africa accounts for an important share of the world’s Muslim population. As of 2019, 16 percent of the Muslims worldwide lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 20 percent of them lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Together with Christianity, Islam is the most common religious affiliation in Africa, followed by several traditional African religions. Although to a smaller extent, numerous other religions are practiced on the continent: these include Judaism, the Baha’i Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Number of Muslims worldwide Islam is one of the most widespread religions in the world. There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims globally, with the largest Muslim communities living in the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Indonesia hosts the highest number of Muslims worldwide, amounting to over 200 million, followed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Islam is also present in Europe and America. The largest Islamic communities in Europe are in France (5.72 million), Germany (4.95 million), and the United Kingdom (4.13 million). In the United States, there is an estimated number of around 3.45 million Muslims.

Abstract

The second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), conducted in 1998-99, provides information on fertility, mortality, family planning, and important aspects of nutrition, health, and health care. The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) coordinated the survey, which collected information from a nationally representative sample of more than 90,000 ever-married women age 15-49. The NFHS-2 sample covers 99 percent of India's population living in all 26 states. This report is based on the survey data for 25 of the 26 states, however, since data collection in Tripura was delayed due to local problems in the state.

IIPS also coordinated the first National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1) in 1992-93. Most of the types of information collected in NFHS-2 were also collected in the earlier survey, making it possible to identify trends over the intervening period of six and one-half years. In addition, the NFHS-2 questionnaire covered a number of new or expanded topics with important policy implications, such as reproductive health, women's autonomy, domestic violence, women's nutrition, anaemia, and salt iodization.

The NFHS-2 survey was carried out in two phases. Ten states were surveyed in the first phase which began in November 1998 and the remaining states (except Tripura) were surveyed in the second phase which began in March 1999. The field staff collected information from 91,196 households in these 25 states and interviewed 89,199 eligible women in these households. In addition, the survey collected information on 32,393 children born in the three years preceding the survey. One health investigator on each survey team measured the height and weight of eligible women and children and took blood samples to assess the prevalence of anaemia.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

Three-quarters (73 percent) of the population lives in rural areas. The age distribution is typical of populations that have recently experienced a fertility decline, with relatively low proportions in the younger and older age groups. Thirty-six percent of the population is below age 15, and 5 percent is age 65 and above. The sex ratio is 957 females for every 1,000 males in rural areas but only 928 females for every 1,000 males in urban areas, suggesting that more men than women have migrated to urban areas.

The survey provides a variety of demographic and socioeconomic background information. In the country as a whole, 82 percent of household heads are Hindu, 12 percent are Muslim, 3 percent are Christian, and 2 percent are Sikh. Muslims live disproportionately in urban areas, where they comprise 15 percent of household heads. Nineteen percent of household heads belong to scheduled castes, 9 percent belong to scheduled tribes, and 32 percent belong to other backward classes (OBCs). Two-fifths of household heads do not belong to any of these groups.

Questions about housing conditions and the standard of living of households indicate some improvements since the time of NFHS-1. Sixty percent of households in India now have electricity and 39 percent have piped drinking water compared with 51 percent and 33 percent, respectively, at the time of NFHS-1. Sixty-four percent of households have no toilet facility compared with 70 percent at the time of NFHS-1.

About three-fourths (75 percent) of males and half (51 percent) of females age six and above are literate, an increase of 6-8 percentage points from literacy rates at the time of NFHS-1. The percentage of illiterate males varies from 6-7 percent in Mizoram and Kerala to 37 percent in Bihar and the percentage of illiterate females varies from 11 percent in Mizoram and 15 percent in Kerala to 65 percent in Bihar. Seventy-nine percent of children age 6-14 are attending school, up from 68 percent in NFHS-1. The proportion of children attending school has increased for all ages, particularly for girls, but girls continue to lag behind boys in school attendance. Moreover, the disparity in school attendance by sex grows with increasing age of children. At age 6-10, 85 percent of boys attend school compared with 78 percent of girls. By age 15-17, 58 percent of boys attend school compared with 40 percent of girls. The percentage of girls 6-17 attending school varies from 51 percent in Bihar and 56 percent in Rajasthan to over 90 percent in Himachal Pradesh and Kerala.

Women in India tend to marry at an early age. Thirty-four percent of women age 15-19 are already married including 4 percent who are married but gauna has yet to be performed. These proportions are even higher in the rural areas. Older women are more likely than younger women to have married at an early age: 39 percent of women currently age 45-49 married before age 15 compared with 14 percent of women currently age 15-19. Although this indicates that the proportion of women who marry young is declining rapidly, half the women even in the age group 20-24 have married before reaching the legal minimum age of 18 years. On average, women are five years younger than the men they marry. The median age at marriage varies from about 15 years in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh to 23 years in Goa.

As part of an increasing emphasis on gender issues, NFHS-2 asked women about their participation in household decisionmaking. In India, 91 percent of women are involved in decision-making on at least one of four selected topics. A much lower proportion (52 percent), however, are involved in making decisions about their own health care. There are large variations among states in India with regard to women's involvement in household decisionmaking. More than three out of four women are involved in decisions about their own health care in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Punjab compared with about two out of five or less in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Rajasthan. Thirty-nine percent of women do work other than housework, and more than two-thirds of these women work for cash. Only 41 percent of women who earn cash can decide independently how to spend the money that they earn. Forty-three percent of working women report that their earnings constitute at least half of total family earnings, including 18 percent who report that the family is entirely dependent on their earnings. Women's work-participation rates vary from 9 percent in Punjab and 13 percent in Haryana to 60-70 percent in Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.

FERTILITY AND FAMILY PLANNING

Fertility continues to decline in India. At current fertility levels, women will have an average of 2.9 children each throughout their childbearing years. The total fertility rate (TFR) is down from 3.4 children per woman at the time of NFHS-1, but is still well above the replacement level of just over two children per woman. There are large variations in fertility among the states in India. Goa and Kerala have attained below replacement level fertility and Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab are at or close to replacement level fertility. By contrast, fertility is 3.3 or more children per woman in Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. More than one-third to less than half of all births in these latter states are fourth or higher-order births compared with 7-9 percent of births in Kerala, Goa, and Tamil Nadu.

Efforts to encourage the trend towards lower fertility might usefully focus on groups within the population that have higher fertility than average. In India, rural women and women from scheduled tribes and scheduled castes have somewhat higher fertility than other women, but fertility is particularly high for illiterate women, poor women, and Muslim women. Another striking feature is the high level of childbearing among young women. More than half of women age 20-49 had their first birth before reaching age 20, and women age 15-19 account for almost one-fifth of total fertility. Studies in India and elsewhere have shown that health and mortality risks increase when women give birth at such young ages?both for the women themselves and for their children. Family planning programmes focusing on women in this age group could make a significant impact on maternal and child health and help to reduce fertility.

INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY

NFHS-2 provides estimates of infant and child mortality and examines factors associated with the survival of young children. During the five years preceding the survey, the infant mortality rate was 68 deaths at age 0-11 months per 1,000 live births, substantially lower than 79 per 1,000 in the five years preceding the NFHS-1 survey. The child mortality rate, 29 deaths at age 1-4 years per 1,000 children reaching age one, also declined from the corresponding rate of 33 per 1,000 in NFHS-1. Ninety-five children out of 1,000 born do not live to age five years. Expressed differently, 1 in 15 children die in the first year of life, and 1 in 11 die before reaching age five. Child-survival programmes might usefully focus on specific groups of children with particularly high infant and child mortality rates, such as children who live in rural areas, children whose mothers are illiterate, children belonging to scheduled castes or scheduled tribes, and children from poor households. Infant mortality rates are more than two and one-half times as high for women who did not receive any of the recommended types of maternity related medical care than for mothers who did receive all recommended types of care.

HEALTH, HEALTH CARE, AND NUTRITION

Promotion of maternal and child health has been one of the most important components of the Family Welfare Programme of the Government of India. One goal is for each pregnant woman to receive at least three antenatal check-ups plus two tetanus toxoid injections and a full course of iron and folic acid supplementation. In India, mothers of 65 percent of the children

According to a survey conducted in 2020, 54 percent of Indian Americans in the United States said that they identified as Hindu while 13 percent said that they identified as Muslim. A further nine percent said that they identified with no religion in particular.

According to India's last census in 2011, the Muslim population had about 24.6 percent of decadal growth rate, while Hindus had a decadal growth rate of 16.8 percent. India, a secular nation provides religious freedom as a fundamental right under the constitution to its citizens.

A survey conducted across India in 2024 found that 77 percent of Hindu population and 81 percent of minorities agree that India belongs to all religions equally. The survey reflects citizens' faith in the secular and pluralistic fabric of the country.

With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Hinduism made up for the highest share of faith followed by people in the country. According to the Indian census of 2011, Muslims had the highest population growth in the country.

In 1800, the population of the region of present-day India was approximately 169 million. The population would grow gradually throughout the 19th century, rising to over 240 million by 1900. Population growth would begin to increase in the 1920s, as a result of falling mortality rates, due to improvements in health, sanitation and infrastructure. However, the population of India would see it’s largest rate of growth in the years following the country’s independence from the British Empire in 1948, where the population would rise from 358 million to over one billion by the turn of the century, making India the second country to pass the billion person milestone. While the rate of growth has slowed somewhat as India begins a demographics shift, the country’s population has continued to grow dramatically throughout the 21st century, and in 2020, India is estimated to have a population of just under 1.4 billion, well over a billion more people than one century previously. Today, approximately 18% of the Earth’s population lives in India, and it is estimated that India will overtake China to become the most populous country in the world within the next five years.

As of 2010, Christianity was the religion with the most followers worldwide, followed by Islam (Muslims) and Hinduism. In the forty years between 2010 and 2050, it is projected that the landscape of world religions will undergo some noticeable changes, with the number of Muslims almost catching up to Christians. The changes in population sizes of each religious group is largely dependent on demographic development, for example, the rise in the world's Christian population will largely be driven by population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, while Muslim populations will rise across various regions of Africa and South Asia. As India's population is set to grow while China's goes into decline, this will be reflected in the fact that Hindus will outnumber the unaffiliated by 2050. In fact, India may be home to both the largest Hindu and Muslim populations in the world by the middle of this century.

In 1800, the population of the area of modern-day Bangladesh was estimated to be just over 19 million, a figure which would rise steadily throughout the 19th century, reaching over 26 million by 1900. At the time, Bangladesh was the eastern part of the Bengal region in the British Raj, and had the most-concentrated Muslim population in the subcontinent's east. At the turn of the 20th century, the British colonial administration believed that east Bengal was economically lagging behind the west, and Bengal was partitioned in 1905 as a means of improving the region's development. East Bengal then became the only Muslim-majority state in the eastern Raj, which led to socioeconomic tensions between the Hindu upper classes and the general population. Bengal Famine During the Second World War, over 2.5 million men from across the British Raj enlisted in the British Army and their involvement was fundamental to the war effort. The war, however, had devastating consequences for the Bengal region, as the famine of 1943-1944 resulted in the deaths of up to three million people (with over two thirds thought to have been in the east) due to starvation and malnutrition-related disease. As the population boomed in the 1930s, East Bengal's mismanaged and underdeveloped agricultural sector could not sustain this growth; by 1942, food shortages spread across the region, millions began migrating in search of food and work, and colonial mismanagement exacerbated this further. On the brink of famine in early-1943, authorities in India called for aid and permission to redirect their own resources from the war effort to combat the famine, however these were mostly rejected by authorities in London. While the exact extent of each of these factors on causing the famine remains a topic of debate, the general consensus is that the British War Cabinet's refusal to send food or aid was the most decisive. Food shortages did not dissipate until late 1943, however famine deaths persisted for another year. Partition to independence Following the war, the movement for Indian independence reached its final stages as the process of British decolonization began. Unrest between the Raj's Muslim and Hindu populations led to the creation of two separate states in1947; the Muslim-majority regions became East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now Pakistan), separated by the Hindu-majority India. Although East Pakistan's population was larger, power lay with the military in the west, and authorities grew increasingly suppressive and neglectful of the eastern province in the following years. This reached a tipping point when authorities failed to respond adequately to the Bhola cyclone in 1970, which claimed over half a million lives in the Bengal region, and again when they failed to respect the results of the 1970 election, in which the Bengal party Awami League won the majority of seats. Bangladeshi independence was claimed the following March, leading to a brutal war between East and West Pakistan that claimed between 1.5 and three million deaths in just nine months. The war also saw over half of the country displaced, widespread atrocities, and the systematic rape of hundreds of thousands of women. As the war spilled over into India, their forces joined on the side of Bangladesh, and Pakistan was defeated two weeks later. An additional famine in 1974 claimed the lives of several hundred thousand people, meaning that the early 1970s was one of the most devastating periods in the country's history. Independent Bangladesh In the first decades of independence, Bangladesh's political hierarchy was particularly unstable and two of its presidents were assassinated in military coups. Since transitioning to parliamentary democracy in the 1990s, things have become comparatively stable, although political turmoil, violence, and corruption are persistent challenges. As Bangladesh continues to modernize and industrialize, living standards have increased and individual wealth has risen. Service industries have emerged to facilitate the demands of Bangladesh's developing economy, while manufacturing industries, particularly textiles, remain strong. Declining fertility rates have seen natural population growth fall in recent years, although the influx of Myanmar's Rohingya population due to the displacement crisis has seen upwards of one million refugees arrive in the country since 2017. In 2020, it is estimated that Bangladesh has a population of approximately 165 million people.

In 2011, about 2.34 percent of the population in India identified Christianity as their religion, an increase from two percent in 1951. Overall, India has been a religiously pluralistic and multiethnic democracy with people of several faiths.

As of January 2024, India had a total of 362 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world. The United States had 169 million users, and Brazil had 134 million. Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan ranked in fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. Brunei is the leading country for Instagram audience reach, with 92 percent of the population using the social media service. Guam came in second, with a penetration rate of 79.2 percent and the Cayman Islands ranked third, with 78.8 percent, followed closely by Kazakhstan, Iceland and Montenegro. It took Instagram 11.2 years to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, took 11 years, whilst Facebook took 13.3 years and YouTube took just over 14 years. Instagram’s demographics in the United States As of May 2021, Instagram was the fourth most visited social media service in the United States, after Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Out of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, TikTok was the most used of all three platforms by Generation Z. Overall, 57 percent of Gen Z social media users used Instagram, down from 61 percent in 2020 and 64 percent in 2019. Instagram finds most popularity with those in the 25 to 34 year age group, and as of December 2021, roughly a third of all users in the United States belonged to this age group. The social media app was also more likely to be used by women. Most followed accounts on Instagram Instagram’s official account had the most followers as of February 2022 with over 470 million followers. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had over 401 million followers on the platform and media personality and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had over 309 million followers. National Geographic (@natgeo) had over 206.9 million followers, sharing educational content through its renowned photojournalism.

As of July 2024, 70.4 percent of the Malaysian population were classified as Bumiputera, 22.4 percent were classified as ethnic Chinese, and 6.5 percent as ethnic Indians. Those who do not fall under these three main ethnic groups are classified as ‘Other’. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society with three main ethnicities and language groups. Who are Malaysia’s Bumiputera? Bumiputera, meaning sons of the soil, is a term used to categorize the Malays, as well as the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, also known as orang asli, and the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak. As of July 2023, the Bumiputera share of the population in Sabah was 89 percent, while that in Sarawak was 76.1 percent. Thus, the incorporation of the states of Sabah and Sarawak during the formation of Malaysia ensured that the ethnic Malays were able to maintain a majority share of the Malaysian population. Bumiputera privileges and ethnic-based politics The rights and privileges of the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are enshrined in Article 153 of Malaysia’s constitution. This translated, in practice, to a policy of affirmative action to improve the economic situation of this particular group, through the New Economic Policy introduced in 1971. 50 years on, it is questionable whether the policy has achieved its aim. Bumiputeras still lag behind the other ethnic two major groups in terms of monthly household income. However, re-thinking this policy will certainly be met by opposition from those who have benefitted from it.