Languages spoken in India

Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Map references: Asia

Land boundaries:
border countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal, Pakistan

Natural resources: 4th-largest coal reserves in the world; also significant deposits of antimony, iron ore, lead, manganese, mica, bauxite, rare earth elements, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone

Population: 1,409,128,296-1,428,627,663 (2024 est.) - most populous country in the world, having surpassed China in 2023

Age structure:
0-14 years: 24.5%
15-64 years: 68.7%
65 years and over: 6.8% (2024 est.)

Median age: 30.1 years (2025 est.)

Nationality:
noun/adjective: Indian(s)

Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, other 3%

Religions: Hindu 79.8%, Muslim 14.2%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.7%, other/unspecified 2% (2011 est.)

Languages: Hindi 43.6%, Bengali 8%, Marathi 6.9%, Telugu 6.7%, Tamil 5.7%, Gujarati 4.6%, Urdu 4.2%, Kannada 3.6%, Odia 3.1%, Malayalam 2.9%, Punjabi 2.7%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.1%, other 5.6%; English is the subsidiary official language and most important for national, political, and commercial communication; 22 languages hold official recognition: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu (2011 est.)

Population distribution: very high population density throughout most of the country, except deserts in the northwest and the mountain fringe in the north; core population is in the north along the banks of the Ganges, with other river valleys and southern coastal areas also densely populated

Country name:
conventional long form: Republic of India
conventional short form: India
local long form: Republic of India/Bharat Ganarajya

Data code: IN

Government type: federal parliamentary republic

National capital: New Delhi

Executive branch:
chief of state: President Droupadi MURMU (since 25 July 2022)
head of government: Prime Minister Narendra MODI (since 26 May 2014)

Administrative divisions: 28 states and 8 union territories

Economy - overview: capitalized on its large, educated, English-speaking population to become a major exporter of IT services, business outsourcing, and software talent; developing into an open-market economy, with traces of earlier autarkic policies remaining; economic liberalization since the early 1990s (industrial deregulation, privatization, reduced trade/investment controls) has driven strong long-term growth

GDP (purchasing power parity): $18.90 trillion (2026 est.) - 3rd largest in the world by PPP

GDP - real growth rate: 7.6% (2025)

GDP - per capita: $12,964 PPP (2026 est.)

Inflation rate: 3.48% (March 2026)

Unemployment rate: 4.9% (March 2025)

Labor force: approximately 610 million (2025)

Population below poverty line: 23.9% (2022)

Currency: Indian rupee (INR)

Broadcast media: Doordarshan, India''s public TV network, has a monopoly on terrestrial broadcasting with about 20 national, regional, and local services; large number of privately owned TV stations distributed via cable and satellite, offering over 850 channels; government controls AM radio via All India Radio; privately owned FM stations permitted since 2000 and rapidly increasing (2020)