other: 42.86% (2001)
Irrigated land:
590,000 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive
flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes
Environment - current issues:
deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air
pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water
pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap
water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing
population is overstraining natural resources
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean
trade routes
People India
Population:
1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0–14 years: 31.2% (male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475)
15–64 years: 63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005
est.)
Median age:
total: 24.66 years
male: 24.64 years
female: 24.67 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate:
1.4% (2005 est.)
Birth rate:
22.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate:
8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate:
−0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.35 years
male: 63.57 years
female: 65.16 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.9% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
5.1 million (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
310,000 (2001 est.)
Major infectious diseases:
degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese
encephalitis are high risks in some locations
animal contact disease: rabies (2004)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian
Ethnic groups:
Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
Religions:
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%,
unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)
Languages:
English enjoys associate status but is the most important language
for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the
national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are
14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu,
Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri,
Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu
spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official
language
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 59.5%
male: 70.2%
female: 48.3% (2003 est.)
Government India
Country name:
