Envis Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India

Printed Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Language and its percentage

 

Comparative ranking of Scheduled Language in descending order of speaker’s strength

 

Language and its percentage to total population

1971

1981*

1991***

2001****

Language          %

Language            %

Language      %

Language       %

1

2

3

4

1

Hindi

36.99

Hindi

38.74

Hindi *2

39.29

Hindi

41.03

 

2

Bengali

8.17

Bengali

7.71

Bengali

8.30

Bengali

8.11

 

3

Telugu

8.16

Telugu

7.61

Telugu

7.87

Telugu

7.19

 

4

Marathi

7.61

Marathi

7.43

Marathi

7.45

Marathi

6.99

 

5

Tamil

6.88

Urdu

5.25

Tamil

6.32

Tamil

5.91

 

6

Urdu

5.22

Gujarati

4.97

Urdu

5.18

Urdu

5.01

 

7

Gujarati

4.72

Kannada

3.86

Gujarati

4.85

Gujarati

4.48

 

8

Malayalam

4.00

Malayalam

3.86

Kannada

3.91

Kannada

3.69

 

9

Kannada

3.96

Oriya

3.46

Malayalam

3.62

Malayalam

3.21

 

10

Oriya

3.62

Punjabi

2.95

Oriya

3.35

Oriya

3.21

 

11

Punjabi

2.57

Maithili1

1.13

Punjabi

2.79

Punjabi

2.83

 

12

Assamese

1.63

Santali1

0.65

Assamese

1.56

Assamese

1.28

 

13

Maithili1

1.12

Kashmiri

0.48

Maithili1

0.93

Maithili 1 @

1.18

 

14

Santali1

0.69

Sindhi

0.31

Santali1

0.62

Santali 1

0.63

 

15

Kashmiri

0.46

Konkani2

0.24

Nepali2

0.25

Kashmiri (+)

0.54

 

16

Sindhi

0.31

Dogri1

0.23

Sindhi

0.25

Nepali2

0.28

 

17

Konkani2

0.28

Nepali2

0.20

Konkani2

0.21

Sindhi

0.25

 

18

Nepali2

0.26

Manipuri2

0.14

Bodo1

0.15

Konkani2

0.24

 

19

Dogri1

0.24

Sanskrit

0.00

Manipuri2

0.15

Dogri 1 (+)

0.22

 

20

Manipuri2

0.14

Assamese**

**

Sanskrit

0.01

Manipuri2 $

0.14

 

21

Bodo1

0.10

Bodo1

**

Kashmiri

***

Bodo 1

0.13

 

22

Sanskrit

0.00

Tamil**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement6.aspx