n south to temperate in north
Terrain:
upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the
Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in north
Natural resources:
coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica,
bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone
Land use:
arable land:
55%
permanent crops:
1%
meadows and pastures:
4%
forest and woodland:
23%
other:
17%
Irrigated land:
430,390 km2 (1989)
Environment:
droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms common; deforestation; soil
erosion; overgrazing; air and water pollution; desertification
Note:
dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes

*India, People

Population:
903,158,968 (July 1993 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.86% (1993 est.)
Birth rate:
29.11 births/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Death rate:
10.52 deaths/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Net migration rate:
0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1993 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
80.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1993 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
58.12 years
male:
57.69 years
female:
58.59 years (1993 est.)
Total fertility rate:
3.57 children born/woman (1993 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective:
Indian
Ethnic divisions:
Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%
Religions:
Hindu 82.6%, Muslim 11.4%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains
0.5%, other 0.4%
Languages:
English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for
national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national
language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu
(official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati
(official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official),
Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi
(official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani a popular variant of Hindu/Urdu,
is spoken widely throughout northern India
note:
24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous other
languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible
Literacy:
age 15 and over can read and write (1990)
total population:
48%
male:
62%
female:
34%
Labor force:
284.4 million
by occupation:
agriculture 67% (FY85)

*India, Government

Name