Among the states, Uttar Pradesh continues to be the most populous one with 16.17 per cent of the country's population, followed by Maharashtra (9.42 per cent) and Bihar (8.07 per cent). In fact, the population of Uttar Pradesh (166 million) is more than the estimated population of Pakistan, according to a press release issued by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.

An interesting fact brought out by the Census exercise is that almost two-third of India's population lives in states and Union territories which have a shown a decline in growth rate during the decade 1991-2001.

Thus, India's share of world population now stands at 16.7 per cent. The percentage decadal growth of the country as a whole has declined from 23.86 during 1981-1991 to 21.34 during 1991-2001. Thus, India has registered a fall in the decadal growth rate by 2.52 per cent points, which is the sharpest decline since independence.

Among the major states Bihar has recorded the highest increase in the percentage decadal growth from 28.47 during 1981-1991 to 28.43 during 1991-2001. During 1991-2001, the lowest growth rate was recorded in Kerala 9.42 per cent followed by Tamil Nadu (11.19) and Andhra Pradesh (13.86).

Andhra Pradesh has shown the sharpest decline among all the major states (10.34 per cent). The average annual exponential growth rate has declined from 2.14 per cent in 1981-91 to 1.93 per cent during 1991-2001. India now has 57 more persons per square km as compared to 1991. West Bengal is the most densely populated state in the country with 904 persons living per square km, followed by Bihar with 880. Sex ratio (the number of females per 1,000 males) for India is 933 females per 1,000 males, which is an improvement of 6 points over 927 females per 1,000 males that was recorded in the 1991 census. Like the 1991 census, the highest sex ratio-1,058 females per 1,000 males-has been reported in Kerala. Among the major states, Haryana has reported the lowest sex ratio of 861.

Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union territory of Chandigarh have seen the sharpest decline in the sex ratio among the child population. Also among the population of children of the age group of 0-6, the sex ratio has been determined as 927 females per 1,000 males.

With regard to literacy, the data collected by the Provisional Population Totals of Census of India 2001 shows that for the first time since the country gained independence, the absolute number of illiterates has shown a decline. The decline in the absolute number of illiterates was as large as 31.96 million during the 10 years between 1991 and 2001. The absolute number of illiterates among males declined by 21.45 million and 10.51 million among females.

Three-fourths of the male population and more than one-half of the female population of the country are literate. Literacy has, in the present Census recorded a jump of 13.17 percentage points as compared to the 1991 Census.

The current figures for literacy stand at 65.38 as compared with 52.21 in 1991. The literacy rates for males and females have increased by 11,72 and 14.87 percentage points, respectively. The gap between the male and female literacy rates has, in fact, decreased from 28.84 in the 1991 Census to 21.70 percentage points in the 2001 census. Literacy rates among the population of seven years and above stands at 65.38 per cent. Corresponding to this, the figures for males and females are 75.85 and 54.16 per cent, respectively. Kerala continues to lead the literacy chart with 90.92 per cent overall literacy, followed by the north-eastern state of Mizoram with 88.49 per cent and the Union territory of Lakshadweep at 87.52 per cent.

Bihar tops the literacy list from the bottom with the lowest literacy rate in the country at 47.53 per cent. It says there have been altogether 3,16,75,607 literates in Bihar in which 2,09,78,955 are males and 1,06,96,652 are females. Three top districts in terms of population are Patna (5.68 per cent), East Champaran (4.75 per cent) and Muzaffarpur(4.5 per cent) and these three districts have retained their rank vis-a-vis the 1991 Census.