Population Composition

A population is not just a number. It has a structure. Knowing how many are men and women, young and old, rural and urban, literate and working tells us far more than the total alone. This population composition shapes a country's needs, its workforce and its future. That is why it is closely studied.

Of all a country's resources, the most important is its people. Human resources are the people of a nation, with their skills, knowledge and energy. People are called the ultimate resource because it is human beings who turn nature's gifts into useful things. A mineral in the ground or a river in the hills is only a potential resource. It becomes useful only when people, with their skills and ideas, put it to work.

Healthy, educated and skilled people can build economies, create new technologies and even make new resources. That is why investing in people, in their health, education and skills, is the surest way to develop a nation.

These people are spread very unevenly across the world, a pattern studied as population distribution. The concern here is different: the structure inside the numbers, starting with the balance of females and males.

The sex ratio is the number of females per thousand males (in India) or per hundred males (internationally). It is an important indicator of the status of women in a society.

A balanced or female-favourable ratio usually reflects better treatment of women. A low ratio (fewer females) can point to neglect, discrimination or the preference for sons. Several regions of the world, and parts of India, have an unfavourable sex ratio. This is a matter of serious concern.

The age structure is the share of people in different age groups (children, working-age adults and the elderly). It is shown by an age-sex pyramid, a graph with males on one side and females on the other, age rising up the bars.

The shape of the pyramid reveals the population's future:

• A wide base means many children, representing a young, fast-growing population (typical of developing countries).
• A narrow base and bulging middle means few children and many adults, indicating a stable or ageing population (typical of developed countries).

A large working-age share, with fewer dependents, gives a country a demographic dividend, an opportunity for rapid economic growth.

People are also classified by where they live:

• Rural population lives in villages and works mainly in farming and other primary activities.
• Urban population lives in towns and cities and works mainly in industry and services.

The world has been urbanising rapidly. A growing share of people now live in cities. This shift changes everything from jobs to housing to the environment.

Two further measures reveal a society's development:

• The literacy rate, the share of people who can read and write, reflects the spread of education and is closely tied to development.
• The occupational structure, the share of workers in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. In poor countries most work in the primary sector (farming). As a country develops, workers shift to industry and then to services.

Together these measures of composition give a far richer picture of a population than its size alone.

The strength of a nation's human resources depends not just on how many people there are, but on their quality. Three factors measure it:

• Health: a healthy population can work and learn.
• Education and literacy: knowledge and skills make people more productive.
• Skills and training: these let people do varied and advanced work.

Improving the quality of the population through schooling, healthcare and skill development transforms ordinary numbers into a powerful, productive workforce. This is why human development lies at the heart of a country's progress.

In India, population composition also covers religion and tribe. Hindus form the majority, and Muslims are the largest minority. Christians are the third largest religious group. Their numbers grew steadily across the Census decades, from about 10.7 million in 1961 to 18.9 million in 1991. Buddhists are concentrated in Maharashtra, which has the largest Buddhist population in the country. This follows the mass conversion movement led by B. R. Ambedkar in 1956, when large numbers of Dalits embraced Buddhism. Sikhs are concentrated in Punjab, and Jains mainly in western India.

The Scheduled Tribes are communities recognised for special protection. Government poverty statistics for the nineties show that tribal groups in central and eastern India (Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) record the highest extent of poverty among all social and religious groups. Within the tribes, the most disadvantaged are the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), a category of tribes needing extra support:

• Number: 75 PVTGs are officially notified in India.
• Spread: they reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
• Criteria: a stagnant or declining population, pre-agricultural level of technology, very low literacy and a subsistence economy.
• Examples: the Irular of Tamil Nadu and the Konda Reddi of Andhra Pradesh are both listed as PVTGs.

Racial origin also marks tribal composition. The indigenous tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, such as the Jarawa, Sentinelese, Onge and Great Andamanese, belong to the Negroid racial stock. They are among the oldest surviving communities in India and several are themselves PVTGs.