Abstract
IN a paper read to the Royal Society of Arts on June 3, Dr. J. H. Hutton discussed some of the figures of the Indian census of 1931. Perfect accuracy in enumeration is not to be expected, and in this census there were certain unusual difficulties. From estimates based on those regions where the census was known to be incomplete for reasons that can be traced, it may be assumed that the deficiency for the whole of India is not more than one per mille. It was calculated that the normal increase in the decade 1921-31 should have been 8 per cent, or rather less if allowance were made for the last influenza epidemic and its inroads on population of the reproducing age. The actual increase, however, proved to be 10-6 per cent, a rate exceeding any previous record. The increase was greatest in the Native States and apparently has been most marked in the less fertile parts of the country, which is an indication of the pressure on agricultural land. In some cases, heavy increases have been due to an extension of irrigation. The lowest density came from certain districts of Baluchistan and the highest from part of Cochin, where the density exceeds even that of Java. There has been little change in the general proportion of urban to rural population. In 1931 the total percentage of urban population was ll.0 per cent as compared with 10-2 per cent in 1921. The proportion of females to males is falling and is now 940 females to every 1000 males.
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The Census of India. Nature 130, 200 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130200a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130200a0