South India - Demographics

Demographics

The estimated population of South India is 233 million. The largest linguistic groups in South India include the Telugus, Tamils, Kannadigas, Malayalis, Tuluvas and Kodavas. About 83% of South Indians follow Hinduism. Islam has the second-highest number of followers in the region, with 11%, while 5% follow Christianity.

The average literacy rate of South India is approximately 73%, considerably higher than the Indian national average of 60%. Kerala leads the nation with a literacy rate of 92%. The sex ratio in South India is fairly equable at 997; Kerala is the only state in India with a favourable sex ratio. The population density of the region is approximately 463. Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 18% of the population of the region. Agriculture is the major employer in the region – 47.5% of the population is involved in agrarian activities. About 60% of the population lives in permanent housing structures. 67.8% of South India has access to tap water. Wells and springs are other major forms of water supply.

The languages of South India are the Dravidian represented by Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, besides Gondi and other minor dialects, and the Austro-Asiatic by the Munda languages. South India's predominant language family is Dravidian, a family of approximately seventy-three languages spoken in South Asia. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 divided states in India along linguistic lines and led to the creation of separate states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in areas where Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil respectively were dominant.

Tamil was the first language to be accorded the status of classical language by the Government of India in 2002 and has about 60 million native speakersin India and over 10 million in other countries. In the 2001 Census, Telugu had the third largest base of native speakers in India (74 million), after Hindi and Bengali and was awarded the status of classical language in 2008. Kannada with 38 million speakers was also awarded the status of classical language in 2008, while Malayalam has 33 million native speakers. Each of these languages is listed as an official language of India, per the Official Languages Act (1963).

Urdu is spoken by over half of the 25 million Muslims in southern India. South Indian Muslims in some regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka speak a dialect of Urdu called Dakhni, while some in the Dakshina Kannada region of Karnataka and regions in Kerala speak Beary bashe. Both Dakhni and Beary bashe are influenced by other South Indian languages. Tulu, a Dravidian language prevalent in coastal Kerala and Karnataka, is spoken by about 1.5 million people in the region, while Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken by over half a million people in the region. English is also widely spoken in urban areas of South India.