After China, India has the largest population in the world. According to the 2011 Census, the population of India is 121 crores (1.21 billion). The growth rate in India is not always high. Between 1901 and 1951, the annual rate of growth never exceeded 1.33%. This is a moderate growth. In fact, the growth rate between 1911 and 1921 was drastically reduced to the negative growth of -0.03%. In short, the growth until 1921 was very slow. There are some reasons for it. In 1918-19 there was an epidemic which kept population under check. In the epidemic 12.5 lakh people, i.e. 5% of the total population, died. Killer diseases like plague and malaria and famine killed lakhs of people.
During the post-independent period, population growth increased considerably. In the period 1961-1981, it went up to 2.2%. After that, even though our growth rate was reduced, India still continues to be one of the most highly populated countries of the world. The , following table gives the population and the growth rate during the various census years.
Indian Population1901-2011
