Land area: 1,147,949 sq mi (2,973,190 sq km); total area: 1,269,338 sq mi (3,287,590 sq km).
Population (2008 est.): 1,147,995,898 (growth rate: 1.5%); birth rate: 22.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 32.3/1000; life expectancy: 69.2; density per sq km: 386
Capital(2003 est.): New Delhi, 15,334,000 (metro. area), 9,817,439 (city proper)
Large cities: Bombay (Mumbai), 18,336,000 (metro. area), 11,914,398 (city proper); Calcutta (Kolkata), 14,299,000 (metro. area), 4,760,800 (city proper); Bangalore, 4,461,100; Madras (Chennai), 4,382,100; Ahmedabad, 3,653,700; Hyderabad, 3,585,600; Kanpur, 2,631,800
Monetary unit: Rupee
National name: Bharat
Principals Languages: Hindi 30%, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Assamese, Sanskrit, Sindhi (all official); Hindi/Urdu; 1,600+ dialects
Ethnicity/race: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
Religions: Hindu 81%, Islam 13%, Christian 2%, Sikh 2% (2001)
National Holiday: Republic Day, January 26
Literacy rate: 61% (2005 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $2.989 trillion; per capita $2,700. Real growth rate: 9.2%. Inflation: 6.4%. Unemployment: 7.2%. Arable land: 49%. Agriculture: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish. Labor force: 516.4 million; agriculture 60%, services 12%, industry 28% (2003). Industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software. Natural resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land. Exports: $140.8 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures. Imports: $224.1 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals. Major trading partners: U.S., UAE, China, Germany, UK, Singapore (2006).
