Demographics
As of 2011 India census Kolhapur had a population of 5,61,841 making it 78th most populous city in India. In this population males constitute 2,87,376 and females constitute 2,74,465 resulting into sex ratio of 955. Kolhapur has average literacy rate of 92.17% which is higher than national average of 59.5%. Male literacy is 96.35% and female literacy is 87.84%. Population growth doesn't show significant comparing to 2001 because the city limits have not expanded since 1977 and trend of industrial growth observed outskirts of city. But it has population density of 8400 per km2 which is higher than state as well as district density.
Majority of people belong to Maratha community along with smaller communities of Brahmins, Buddhists, Gujaratis Marwadis, Marathi Jains, Sindhis with minority population of Muslims. Marathi is the official language spoken in the city. Hindi is also spoken as a secondary language.Though Kannada is now spoken mainly by the recent migrants from of Karnataka,Kannada was once very widely spoken in Kolhapur during bygone eras,which is proved by large number of stone inscriptions on Mahalakshmi temple,Kannada jain manuscripts found in Kolhapur ans some place names.
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