Total Area:
3,287,590 sq. km

Population:
1,147,995,898 (July 2008 est.)

Ethnicity:
Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and Other 3% (2000)

Language:
English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language.

Religion:
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, Other 1.8% (2001)

Government Type:
Federal Republic

Capital:
New Delhi

Population Below Poverty Line:
25% (2007 est.)