Rural – Urban Composition

• Around 72% of the total population resides in villages. 
• The degree of urbanization, both within states and between states, and the extent of rural-to-urban migration influence the concentration of rural populations and the growth of urban populations. 
• This trend highlights the development of urban areas, particularly in terms of socio-economic conditions, along with the increasing rate of rural-urban migration. Such migration is especially noticeable in urban areas situated along major roadways and railroads.

Linguistic Classification

• 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.
• Among 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).

Religious Composition

• Hindus are distributed as a major group in many states (ranging from 70 – 90 per cent and above) except the districts of states along Indo- Bangladesh border, Indo-Pak border, Jammu & Kashmir, Hill States of North-East and in scattered areas of Deccan Plateau and Ganga Plain.
• Muslims, the largest religious minority, are concentrated in Jammu & Kashmir, certain districts of West Bengal and Kerala, many districts of Uttar Pradesh, in and around Delhi and in Lakshadweep.
• They form majority in Kashmir valley and Lakshadweep.

Composition of Working Population

Divided into three groups, namely; main workers, marginal workers and non-workers-

1. Main Worker is a person who works for at least 183 days in a year.
2. Marginal Worker is a person who works for less than 183 days in a year
3. The proportion of workers (both main and marginal) is only 39 per cent (2001) leaving a vast majority of 61 per cent as non-workers.

Work participation rate

• The states with larger percentages of workers are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya.
• Among the Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have higher participation rate
• Because the work participation rate tends to be higher in the areas of lower levels of economic development since number of manual workers are needed to perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities

Occupational composition population

• Which actually means engagement of an individual in farming, manufacturing trade, services or any kind of professional activities shows a large proportion of primary sector workers compared to secondary and tertiary sectors
• About 58.2 per cent of total working population are cultivators and agricultural laborers,
• whereas only 4.2% of workers are engaged in household industries and 
• 37.6 % are other workers including non- household industries, trade, commerce, construction and repair and other service
• The number of female workers is relatively high in primary sector