Thiruvananthapuram - Demographics

Demographics

The city has a population of 752,490 according to the 2011 census, and 1,687,406 in the Urban Agglomeration. Within the city, the density of population is about 5,284 people per square kilometer. There are more women in Thiruvananthapuram than men; the sex ratio is 1,064 females to every 1,000 males.

In October 2010, the area of the city was increased from 86 wards to 100 wards by adding Sreekaryam, Vattiyoorkavu, Kudappanakunnu, Vizhinjam and Kazhakuttam panchayats into the corporation. The city has now an area of 214.86 km² and a population of 957,730 inhabitants with 467,739 males and 489,991 females.

Hindus comprise 65% of the population, Christians are about 18% of the population, and Muslims are about 15% of the populace. The remaining 2% of the population practice other religions. The major language spoken is Malayalam. English, Tamil, and Hindi are also widely understood. There is also a prominent minority of Tamil speakers and a few Tulu and Konkani speakers.

Unemployment is a serious issue in Thiruvananthapuram, as it is in the whole of Kerala. The increase in the unemployment rate was from 8.8% in 1998 to 34.3% in 2003, thus registering a 25.5% absolute and a 289.7% relative increase in five years. Thiruvananthapuram taluk ranks third in Kerala with 36.3% of its population unemployed. The in-migration of the unemployed from other districts also boosts this high unemployment rate. Thiruvananthapuram has a high suicide rate, which went up from 17.2 per lakh in 1995 to 38.5 per lakh in 2002. In 2004, the rate came down slightly to 36.6 per lakh. As per 2001 census, the populace below the poverty line in the city was 11,667. A BPL survey indicated the urban poor population as 120,367. Majority of these populace lives in slums and coastal fishing areas.

This apparent paradox—high human development and low economic development—is visible in the entire state of Kerala, and is often dubbed as the Kerala phenomenon or the Kerala model of development.