_#_Life expectancy at birth: 57 years male, 59 years female (1991)
_#_Total fertility rate: 3.7 children born/woman (1991)
_#_Nationality: noun—Indian(s); adjective—Indian
_#_Ethnic divisions: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%
_#_Religion: Hindu 82.6%, Muslim 11.4%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2.0%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%
_#_Language: Hindi, English, and 14 other official languages—Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; 24 languages spoken by a million or more persons each; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindustani, a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern India
_#_Literacy: 48% (male 62%, female 34%) age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
_#_Labor force: 284,400,000; 67% agriculture (FY85)
_#_Organized labor: less than 5% of the labor force
_*Government #_Long-form name: Republic of India