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State's population now stands at 4.19 crore

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa is now the 11th populous State of India having a population of 4,19,47,358, according to the provisional figure of Census 2011 which was released on Thursday.

The State's population that constitutes 3.47 per cent of country's population comprises of 2,12,01,678 male and 2,07,45,680 female. Total population of the State has increased by 13.97 per cent from 3,68,04,660 in 2001 to 4,19,47,358 persons in 2011. The decadal growth in population of the State is lower than national average which is 17.64 per cent.

Among eight Empowered Action Group (EAG) States, namely, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the State seems to be performing better than the rest by registering consistently lower growth rates than the nation since 1971.

In fact the growth of Orissa started to fall from 1971, and its growth rate during 2001-2011, at 14 per cent, is lower than the average of the non-EAG States, the Census 2011 says. The State joined West Bengal in registering low growth rate in eastern India.

Sex ratio

The State has registered a slight improvement in sex ratio with having 978 females per 1000 males in 2011 compared to 972 in 2001. In fact State's sex ratio has reversed this census as since 1961 the sex ratio had been constantly falling.

As many as 269 persons now live in a square kilometre area in the State against 236 persons in 2001.

Reacting to the Census outcome, noted demographer Almas Ali said, “the low growth of the State is a good sign. But we need to study what has caused low growth rate in detail.”

As far as literacy is concerned, the State ranks 25th in the country having literates constituting 73.45 per cent of its total population. Male literacy rate has gone up from 75.35 per cent in 2001 to 82.40 per cent in 2011.

In the same period, improvement has also been noticed in female literacy rate which has increased from 50.51 per cent to 64.36 per cent.

Although the gap between male literates and their counterpart has decreased from 24.84 per cent in 2001 to 18.04 per cent in 2011, the Orissa's female literacy has fallen behind national average of 65.46 per cent.

On literacy front, Orissa has fared badly among EAG States. It registered 36.68 per cent increase in number of literates compared to Bihar's 74.83 per cent and Jharkhand's 59.24 per cent growth.

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