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Indiaat a Glance

LocationSouthern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Population1,080,264,388

Population Growth Rate 1.4%

ReligionsHindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1%

Languages– English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language

Literacy
definition:  age 15 and over can read and write
total population:  59.5%
male: 70.2%
female:  female: 48.3% (2003 est.)