Orissa - Demographics

Demographics

According to the 2011 census of India, the total population of Orissa is 41,947,358, of which 21,201,678 (50.54%) are male and 20,745,680 (49.46%) are female, or 978 females per 1000 males. This represents a 13.97% increase over the population in 2001. The population density is 269 per km².

The dominant ethnic group are the Oriya people and Oriya (Oriya) is the official language of Orissa and spoken as a native language by about 73% of the people. Other linguistic minorities in the state are Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Santali. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes form 16.53% and 22.13% of the state population, constituting 38.66% of the State population. Some of the important tribes are Santhal, Bonda, Munda, Oraon, Kora and Mahali.

The literacy rate is 73.45% with 82.4% of males and 64.36% of females being literate, according to 2011 census.

The proportion of people living below the poverty line in 1999–2000 was 47.15% which is nearly double the all India average of 26.10%.

Data of 1996–2001 showed the life expectancy in the state was 61.64 years, higher than the national value of years. The state has a birth rate of 23.2 per 1,000 people per year, a death rate of 9.1 per 1,000 people per year, an infant mortality rate of 65 per 1000 live birth and a maternal mortality rate of 358 per 1,000,000 live births. Orissa has a Human Development Index of 0.579 in 2004.