Catholic Online
LOS ANGELES - India added 181 million people in the past decade, said C. Chandramouli, the census commissioner. The increase alone is nearly the entire population of Brazil, and U.N. projections show that India could overtake China and its 1.34 billion people as the world\'s most populous nation by 2030.
The South Asian nation of India's population now stands at 1.2 billion people, nearly equal to the combined populations of the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Japan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Census officials say that Indian population growth has actually slowed for the first time in 90 years, in spite of India being second only to China in terms of population.
The numbers released this week are preliminary, with official figures and analysis not expected to be released until next year. The census was India\'s 15th since 1872, a Herculean effort spread out over a year.
It involved 2.7 million census-takers who surveyed some 300 million households, noting for the first time whether people lived in basic huts or concrete structures, had electricity and access to toilets and if they had any formal education.
The questions will help administrators develop policies and set budgets for a nation where 800 million people live in poverty. Millions of India's homeless were also counted.
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