India is a country with a population of around 1.12 billion approximately. The current Indian population as on July 2007 is 1,129,866,154. India is the second most populated country is the world after China. Indian population has always been a major issue along with problems like poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. India is also a country that has the maximum number of youths. Indian population accounts for 16% of the total world population. The population density of the nation amounts to 324 people per square kilometer. India has a poor sex ratio with only 927 females per 1000 males. The rate of population growth in India is 1.606%. More than 70% of India’s population lives in rural areas. There are more than 5, 50, 000 villages and 200 cities and towns in India. 22% of the population lives below poverty line. Almost 83% of the country men are Hindus. India also has one of the world's largest Muslim populations amounting to 120 billion. The population also includes other castes like Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis.

India’s population like its culture and topography is remarkably diverse. The country has more than two thousand ethnic groups. There are more than two hundred spoken languages in India. The diversity is also lent by the social parameters such as income and education. The standard of living and the quality of life especially those of women remains poor compared to that of people in developed nations. Because of the Indian population problem, the progress of the country is hindered. Strict family planning measures have been implemented by the government of India to control the population explosion. Unemployment is the result of over-population. The unemployment rate in India is 7.8%. However with globalization, privatization and liberalization problems of unemployment have been solved to certain extent.

Scheduled castes and tribes are also a part of the indian population. Scheduled castes amount to16.2% and scheduled tribes amount to 8.2% as per the 2001 Census. There are reservations for these special category people as they belong to the backward class and off late the increase in this quota has created a lot of controversy in the country. The greatest number of tribal people live in Orissa. However, the populations of states in the northeast has the greatest concentrations of scheduled tribe members. 31 % of the population of Tripura, 34 %of Manipur, 64 % of Arunachal Pradesh, 86 % of Meghalaya, 88 % of Nagaland, and 95 %of Mizoram belong to the Scheduled Tribe.

Though indian population is seen as a hurdle along its progress, it is also a power for India. No other country has such human capital and it truly makes India what it is rightly called as a ‘Young Nation’ emerging as a global power..