VI. DEMOGRAPHY

A. Number of speakers:

The total number of Assamese Speakers in India according to 2001 census is 13,168,484 of which 6,787,493 are male and 6,380,991 are female.

The Table below shows Mother tongues grouped under Assamese Language

Mother Tongues	Number of Speakers
Assamese	12,778,735
Others	389,749

1. Main Habitat:

The main places of habitat of the Assamese speech community are Asssam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

a. Male/Female

The following list figures out the male/female distribution of Assamese speakers in the States and Union Territories of India, as per 2001 census.

India/State/Union Territory	Persons	Male	Female
India*	13,168,484	6,787,493	6,380,991
Assam	13,010,478	6,691,321	6,319,157
Arunachal Pradesh	51,551	28,918	22,633
Meghalaya	36,576	20,057	16,519
Nagaland	16,813	10,328	6,485
Uttar Pradesh	7,922	4,390	3,532
West Bengal	7,835	4,904	2,931
Delhi#	6,329	3,873	2,456
Jammu & Kashmir	6,070	5,655	415
Punjab	2,980	2,093	887
Maharashtra	2,516	1,828	688
Rajasthan	2,261	1,651	610
Haryana	2,048	1,368	680
Karnataka	1,925	1,430	495
Gujarat	1,576	1,105	471
Manipur *	1,456	1,174	282
Madhya Pradesh	1,240	887	353
Tripura	1,209	935	274
Mizoram	979	761	218
Jharkhand	874	643	231
Uttaranchal	854	625	229
Andhra Pradesh	845	584	261
Bihar	619	321	298
Sikkim	545	455	90
Tamil Nadu	527	377	150
Orissa	479	294	185
Himachal Pradesh	447	338	109
Kerala	421	306	115
Chandigarh#	273	195	78
Daman & Diu#	265	258	7
Goa	195	154	41
Chhattisgarh	176	94	82
Dadra & Nagar Haveli#	122	115	7
Andaman & Nicobar Islands#	67	49	18
Pondicherry#	11	7	4

b. Rural/Urban

The following List gives a picture of rural/urban distribution of Assamese speakers in the States and Union Territories of India, as per 2001 census.

India/State/Union Territory	Persons	Rural	Urban
India*	13,168,484	11,594,430	1,574,054
Assam	13,010,478	11,507,993	1,502,485
Arunachal Pradesh	51,551	32,798	18,753
Meghalaya	36,576	26,250	10,326
Nagaland	16,813	11,215	5,598
Uttar Pradesh	7,922	416	7,506
West Bengal	7,835	4,396	3,439
Delhi#	6,329	369	5,960
Jammu & Kashmir	6,070	1,722	4,348
Punjab	2,980	1,536	1,444
Maharashtra	2,516	230	2,286
Rajasthan	2,261	604	1,657
Haryana	2,048	1,338	710
Karnataka	1,925	271	1,654
Gujarat	1,576	486	1,090
Manipur *	1,456	1,006	450
Madhya Pradesh	1,240	142	1,098
Tripura	1,209	895	314
Mizoram	979	257	722
Jharkhand	874	98	776
Uttaranchal	854	164	690
Andhra Pradesh	845	211	634
Bihar	619	254	365
Sikkim	545	487	58
Tamil Nadu	527	104	423
Orissa	479	135	344
Himachal Pradesh	447	319	128
Kerala	421	201	220
Chandigarh#	273	23	250
Daman & Diu#	265	259	6
Goa	195	52	143
Chhattisgarh	176	71	105
Dadra & Nagar Haveli#	122	104	18
Andaman & Nicobar Islands#	67	24	43
Pondicherry#	11	0	11

2. Decennial Growth

The table below shows the decennial growth of Assamese speakers in 4 consecutive census reports.

Year	Language Speakers	Decadal Percentage Increase
1971	8,959,558	*
1981	**	NA
1991	13,079,696	NA
2001	13,168,484	0.68

** Full figures are not available

B. Settlement Pattern

The following table shows the settlement pattern of Assamese Speakers (Urban-rural/male-female), according to 2001 census:

	Total	Male	Female
Total	13,168,484	6,787,493	6,380,991
Rural	11,594,430	5,956,693	5,637,737
Urban	1,574,054	830,800	743,254

C. LITERACY AND EDUCATION:

The literacy rate of Assam in 1991 (according to 1991 census) was 52.89%, while it increased to 63.25% in 2001(according to 2001 census.) No census was carried out in Assam during 1981.

The table below shows the decennial literacy growth of Assamese in 2 consecutive census.

Year	Total	Male	Female
1991	52.89	61.87	43.03
2001	63.25	71.28	54.61