Distribution of Population 

• India has a highly uneven pattern of population distribution
• Uttar Pradesh has the highest population followed by Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh 
• Climate along with terrain and availability of water largely determines the pattern of the population distribution 
• Evolution of settled agriculture and agricultural development;
• Pattern of human settlement; development of transport network, industrialization and urbanization

Density of population,

• is expressed as number of persons per unit area.
• State has high density of population – Bihar (1102)
• State has low density of population – Arunachal Pradesh (17) 
• The density of population is a crude measure of human and land relationship. 
• Physiological density = total population / net cultivated area. 
• Agricultural density = total agricultural population / net cultivable area. 
• Agricultural population includes cultivators and agricultural labourers and their family members.

Growth of Population

• The change in the number of people living in a particular area between two points of time. Its rate is expressed in percentage. 
• Population growth has two components namely; natural and induced.
• natural growth is analysed by assessing the crude birth and death rates,
• induced components are explained by the volume of inward and outward movement of people in any given area 
• The annual growth rate of India‟s population is 2.4 per cent
• The growth rate of population in India over the last one century has been caused by annual birth rate and death rate and rate of migration and thereby shows different trends

Four distinct phases of growth identified-

Phase I – (1901-1921)

• growth rate was very low, even recording a negative growth rate during 1911-1921.
• Both the birth rate and death rate were high keeping the rate of increase low
• Poor health and medical services, illiteracy of people at large and inefficient distribution system of food and other basic necessities were largely responsible for a high birth and death rates in this period.

Phase II : ( 1921 -1951) 

• Steady population growth.
• Overall improvement in health and sanitation throughout the country brought down the mortality rate.
• At the same time better transport and communication system improved distribution system. 
• The crude birth rate remained high in this period leading to higher growth rate than the previous phase.
• This is impressive at the backdrop of Great Economic Depression, 1920s and World War II.

Phase III : (1951-1981) 

• population explosion in India, caused by a rapid fall in the mortality rate but a high fertility rate of population in the country.
• The average annual growth rate was as high as 2.2 per cent. 
• Developmental activities were introduced through a centralized planning process and economy started showing up ensuring the improvement of living condition of people at large.
• Consequently, there was a high natural increase and higher growth rate. Besides, increased international migration bringing in Tibetans, Bangladeshis, Nepalies and even people from Pakistan contributed to the high growth rate.

Phase IV : (post 1981 till present)

• the growth rate of country‟s population though remained high, has started slowing down gradually
• A downward trend of crude birth rate is held responsible for such a population growth. 
• This was, in turn, affected by an increase in the mean age at marriage, improved quality of life particularly education of females in the country

Regional Variation in Population Growth

• The States like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Puducherry, and Goa show a low rate of growth not exceeding 20 per cent over the decade.
• Kerala registered the lowest growth rate (9.4) not only in this group of states but also in the country as a whole. (Y?)
• A continuous belt of states from west to east in the north-west, north , and north central parts of the country has relatively high growth rate than the southern states. It is in this belt comprising Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, the growth rate on the average remained 20-25 per cent. (Y?)

The National Youth Policy –

• is one example which has been designed to look into the overall development of our large youth and adolescent population
• launched in 2003,
• All- round improvement of the youth and adolescents enabling them to shoulder responsibility towards constructive development of the country.
• aims at reinforcing the qualities of patriotism and responsible citizenship.
• youth empowerment in terms of their effective participation in decision making and carrying the responsibility of an able leader.
• Special emphasis was given in empowering women and girl child to bring parity in the male-female status.
• health, sports and recreation, creativity and awareness about new innovations in the spheres of science and technology.

Population Composition
1. Rural – Urban Composition 

• 72 per cent of total population lives in villages
• both at intra-State and inter – State levels, the relative degree of urbanisation and extent of rural-urban migration regulate the concentration of rural population
• increase of urban population. This indicates both development of urban areas in terms of socio-economic conditions and an increased rate of rural-urban migration
• rural-urban migration is conspicuous in the case of urban areas along the main road links and railroads.

2. Linguistic Composition

• India is a land of linguistic diversity. According to Grierson (Linguistic Survey of India, 1903 – 1928) there were 179 languages and as many as 544 dialects in the country.
• 18 scheduled languages (1991 census) and a number of non- scheduled languages.
• A mong the scheduled languages, the speakers of Hindi have the highest percentage (40.42). The smallest language groups are Kashmiri and Sanskrit speakers (0.01 per cent each).

3. Linguistic Classification 

• The speakers of major Indian languages belong to four language families.