41 per cent population below 20 years

Making youngsters the primary constituents of India’s overall population, the Census 2011 data shows that around 41 per cent of India’s population is below the age of 20 years, among which Muslims have the highest proportion of children and teenagers among all religions.

Interestingly, among the Muslims, just 6.4 per cent of the population is over 60 years, leaving almost 50 per cent population lower than the national average.

According to the 2011 census data released Tuesday, forty-seven per cent Muslims are aged below 20 years, the highest among all religious communities, while children and teenagers make up 40 per cent of the Hindu population. However, the share of the overall young population in the country has declined since the previous census in 2001, when it was 45 per cent for the whole country. While 41 per cent population in India is below 20 years old, only nine per cent is above 60 years, leaving 50 per cent in the intervening 20-59 age group.

Census data shows that just 29 per cent population among Jains is in the age group of 0-19 years while among the Christians, it is 37 per cent, Sikhs 35 per cent and Buddhist 37 per cent. Moreover, among the Hindus, 44 per cent were below the age group of 20 years, among Muslims 52 per cent and Jains 35 per cent.

Overall, life cycles of different religious communities in the country have shown common trends of declining proportion of children and teenagers and increasing share of elderly citizens, according to the data. The proportion of elderly people in the country has risen across all communities as life spans have generally increased. Among Jains and Sikhs, the share of elderly is around 12 per cent each.

Age-wise population shares reveal another important aspect of the lives of people — dependency. Both children and the elderly are dependent on the able and adult population.