Can you imagine a world without human beings? Who would have utilised the resources and created social and cultural environment? The people are important to develop the economy and the society. The people make and use resources and are themselves resources with varying quality. Coal is but a piece of rock, until people were able to invent technology to obtain it and make it ‘resource’. Natural events, like a flood or a Tsunami, becomes a ‘disaster’ only when they affect a crowded village or a town.
Hence, population is the pivotal element in social studies. It is the point of reference from which all other elements are observed and from which they derive significance and meaning. ‘Resources’, ‘calamities’ and ‘disasters’ are all meaningful only in relation to human beings. Their numbers, distribution, growth and characteristics or qualities provide the basic background for understanding and appreciating all aspects of the environment.
Human beings are producers and consumers of earth’s resources. Therefore, it is important to know how many people are there in a country, where do they live, how and why their numbers are increasing and what are their characteristics. The census of India provides us with information regarding the population of our country.
We are primarily concerned with three major questions about population:
(i) Population size and distribution: How many people are there and where are they located?
(ii) Population growth and processes of population change: How has the population grown and changed through time?
(iii) Characteristics or qualities of the population: What are their age, sex composition, literacy levels, occupational structure and health conditions?
POPULATION SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION
India’s Population Size and Distribution by Numbers
India’s population as on March 2011 stood at 1,210.6 million, which account for 17.5 per cent of the world’s population. These 1.21 billion people are unevenly distributed over our country’s vast area of 3.28 million square km,which accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s area (Figure 6.1).
The 2011 Census data reveal that Uttar Pradesh with a population size of 199 million is the most populous state of India. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 16 per cent of the country’s population. On the other hand, the Himalayan state of Sikkim has a population of just about 0.6 million and Lakshadweep has only 64,429 people.
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