ENVIS Centre: Karnataka
State of Environment and Related Issues

Karnataka Demography

For administrative purpose the state of Karnataka is divided in to 4 divisions, 30 districts and 500 community development blocks (CDBs) and the state is having 5788 Panchayats. There are 327028 revenue villages of which 27028 villages are inhabited and there are 51533 habitation/hamlets, 9 urban agglomeration and 130 towns in the state.

By religion, 83% of the population are Hindu, 11% are Muslim, 4% are Christian, 0.78% are Jains, 0.73% are Buddhist, and with the remainder belonging to other religions. Kannada is the official language of Karnataka and spoken as a native language by about64.75% of the people. Other linguistic minorities in the state as of 2011 are Urdu (9.72%), Telugu (8.34%), Tamil (5.46%), Marathi (3.95%), Tulu (3.38%), Hindi (1.87%), Konkani (1.78%), Malayalam (1.69%) and Kodava Takk (0.25%).

The state has a birth rate of 2.2%, a death rate of 0.72%, and an infant mortality rate of 5.5%and a maternal mortality rate of 0.195%. The total fertility rate of the state is 2.2.

As per details from Census 2011, Karnataka has population of 6.11 Crore, an increase from figure of 5.29 Crore in 2001 census. Total population of Karnataka as per 2011 census is 61, 130,704 of which male and female are 31,057,742 and 30,072,962 respectively. In 2001, the total population was 52,850,562 in which males were 26,898,918 while females were 25,951,644.

Karnataka Urban Population 2011

Out of total population of Karnataka, 38.57% people live in urban regions. The total figure of population living in urban areas is 23,578,175 of which 12,046,744 are males and while remaining 11,531,431 are females. The urban population in the last 10 years has increased by 31.27 percent.

Sex Ratio in urban regions of Karnataka was 957 females per 1000 males. For child (0-6) sex ratio the figure for urban region stood at 941 girls per 1000 boys. Total children (0-6 age) living in urban areas of Karnataka were 2,504,013. Of total population in urban region, 10.6 % were children (0-6).

Average Literacy rate in Karnataka for Urban regions was 86.21 percent in which males were 90.54% literate while female literacy stood at 81.71%. Total literates in urban region of Karnataka were 18,168,670. Of the total population of Karnataka state, around 61.43 percent live in the villages of rural areas. In actual numbers, males and females were 19,010,998 and 18,541,531 respectively. Total population of rural areas of Karnataka state was 37,552,529. The population growth rate recorded for this decade (2001-2011) was 7.63%.

Karnataka Rural Population 2011

In rural regions of Karnataka state, female sex ratio per 1000 males was 975 while same for the child (0-6 age) was 945 girls per 1000 boys. In Karnataka, 4,351,788 children (0-6) live in rural areas. Child population forms 11.59 percent of total rural population.

In rural areas of Karnataka, literacy rate for males and female stood at 77.92 % and 59.60 %. Average literacy rate in Karnataka for rural areas was 68.86 percent. Total literates in rural areas were 22,860,653.

Sex Ratio:

The Sex Ratio in the State, which was 965 inn 2001, has risen by 3 points to 968 in  2011. Dakhshina kannada, district stands next (1022). Kodagu (1019) and Bangalore Rural (945) show the lowest Sex Ratio in the State.

Source : Department of Planning, Karnataka