States of India by Urdu speakers

As per Government of India census data of 2011, the total number of Urdu speakers in the Republic of India were 62,772,631.^[1][2] According to the census guidelines, "Urdu" does not broadly refer to the Hindostani language, but the literary-register of the macrolanguage, hence accounting Hindi as a separate language.

Urdu is officially recognised in India and has official status in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to which the language has remained deeply attached through its medieval history of Muslim sultanates and empires and the Indian states and union territories of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,^[3] Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir.

Regional distribution

Following is a list of States and Union Territories of India by speakers of Urdu census data with estimated 2001 speakers.^[4]

Rank	State	Urdu speakers
		Persons	Males	Females
	India	85,061,078	46,837,143	45,698,968
1	Uttar Pradesh	38,272,080	20,947,596	19,324,484
2	Bihar	17,757,548	8,891,011	8,566,537
3	Delhi	8,575,033	4,351,545	4,223,488
4	Maharashtra	6,895,501	3,247,547	3,247,954
5	Telangana & Andhra Pradesh	5,539,910	3,430,719	2,109,191
6	Jharkhand	3,324,411	2,206,458	1,117,953
7	Madhya Pradesh	3,186,364	2,180,019	1,006,345
8	Karnataka	2,674,333	1,373,117	1,301,216
9	West Bengal	1,653,739	914,087	739,652
10	Rajasthan	1,462,983	781,000	681,002
11	Gujarat	1,350,630	687,723	663,907
12	Odisha	899,299	411,692	288,817
13	Tamil Nadu	511,299	273,914	232,385
14	Uttarakhand	497,081	265,152	231,929
15	Haryana	260,687	140,038	120,649
16	Chhattisgarh	88,008	46,670	41,338
17	Goa	54,163	28,306	25,857
18	Punjab	27,660	16,971	10,689
19	Kerala	51,492	26,703	25,789
20	Jammu & Kashmir	13,251	8,293	4,958
21	Chandigarh	7,254	4,428	2,826
22	Puducherry	7,092	3,450	3,642
23	Himachal Pradesh	4,787	3,146	1,641
24	Assam	4,715	2,821	1,894
25	Sikkim	2,930	2,118	812
26	Meghalaya	2,531	1,509	1,022
27	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1,615	885	730
28	Arunachal Pradesh	1,258	883	375
29	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	994	590	404
30	Nagaland	759	562	197
31	Daman & Diu	574	388	186
32	Manipur	483	470	13
33	Tripura	313	253	60
34	Mizoram	98	84	14
35	Lakshadweep	26	14	12

For census data of 1991:GOI census 1991: DISTRIBUTION OF 10,000 PERSONS BY LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES - 1991

Speaker strength

Following is speaker's strength data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:^[5][6]

Language	Persons who returned the language as their mother tongue^[7]					Percentage to total population
	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011	1971	1981	1991	2001	2011
Urdu	28,620,895	34,941,435	43,406,932	51,536,111	50,772,631	5.22	5.25	5.18	5.01	4.19

Ranking

Following is ranking data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:^[8]

Urdu: its rank and percentage to total population
1971		1981		1991		2001		2011
Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%
6	5.22	5	5.25	6	5.18**	6	5.01	7	4.19

"**" Census was not conducted in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir

See also

• States of India by urban population
• States of India by size of economy
• Muslims of Uttar Pradesh

References

1. http://censusindia.gov.in/ ^{[dead link]}
2. SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH - 2001
3. "Urdu in Bihar". Language in India. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
4. [1]^{[dead link]}
5. GOI census 2001: COMPARATIVE SPEAKERS' STRENGTH OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES -1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001 2009-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
6. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/PCA_Highlights/pca_highlights_file/India/Chapter-1.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
7. [2]^{[dead link]}
8. GOI census 2001: COMPARATIVE RANKING OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH-1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001

External links

• http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/data_files/india/Final_PPT_2011_chapter5.pdf
• GOI census 2001: Population by religious communities