BENGALURU: While the Centre’s Census data shows a decline in the proportion of the Hindu population to the total population from 80.45 per cent to 79.8 per cent between 2001 and 2011, the share of the Hindu population in the state has seen a marginal rise from 83.9 per cent to 84 per cent.
According to the Census figures, the Hindu population in the state stands at 5.13 crore of the total population of 6.10 crore. The decadal growth rate of Hindus for the same period was 15.78 per cent. Mandya district has recorded the highest Hindu population (94.84 per cent) while the least Hindu populated district is Dakshina Kannada (67.18 per cent) of the total population. The Muslim population increased from 64,63,127 in 2001 Census to 78,93,065, up from 12.12 per cent to 12.91 per cent. The population share of Christians has declined from 1.91 per cent to 1.87 per cent. While Buddhists constitute 0.15 per cent of the total population, Jains make up 0.72 per cent of the population.
Sikhs constitute 0.04 per cent of the state’s total population.