Rural Demographics of India

With a mammoth rural population of 833 million, India bids a large rural market. The countrys rural market scenario is changing because of increasing literacy, awareness of improved living standards, and modernization in the attitude, outlook and lifestyles of the rural folk, both males and females. Rural demographics serve valuable information to the stakeholders of rural areas and provide useful supplementary input for policy dialogue. This article covers four demographic areas viz., population size, population growth rate, sex ratio and literacy rate. The objective of this paper is to examine the trends, decadal differences and present scenario of selected demographics with emphasis on rural- urban distribution of population in the country.