HYDERABAD: As the government finally released the Census data showing the break-up of religious communities in the country for 2001-2011 decade on Tuesday, it shows a marked slowdown in the earstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The Muslim population in united Andhra Pradesh has risen by 0.39 per cent, while Hindu population’s growth has slowed down to 0.55 per cent. Whereas, going by the numbers, the Christian community has recorded a decline in the numbers from 11.8 lakh in 2001 to 11.2 lakh in 2011, showing a decline of 0.21 per cent.
The growth of Muslim population in Andhra Pradesh is lower than the national growth figure of the community which is at 0.8 percent.
A similar trend is seen among the Hindu population in Andhra Pradesh which grew by .55 per cent in contrast to the national average of .7 per cent, according to the latest census data on religion. The census figure on religion was released on Tuesday, more than four years after compilation of the data.
The population of erstwhile AP grew from 7.6 crore in 2001 to 8.5 crore in 2011 (for the united state). The Muslim community in the State has increased from 69.8 lakh in 2001 to 80.8 lakh in 2011 whereas Hindu population spurted from 6.78 crore in 2001 to 7.48 crore in 2011.
As on 2011, the Hindu population in Andhra Pradesh stood at 88.46 per cent which is at variance with the national census figure, where the Hindu population fell below the 80 per cent mark for the first time. The Muslim population stood at 9.5 per cent. Christians make up 1.33 per cent of the total population. However, in 2001, Hindus accounted for 89.01 per cent of the total AP population and Muslims: 9.17 per cent along with Christians at 1.55 per cent.
Surprisingly, the number of people in united AP, who said they do not belong to any religion, rose from 94,934 in 2001 to 4,04,100 in 2011, a four-fold increase in a decade. The population of India grew by 17.7% during 2001-2011, against 21.5% in the previous decade.