📊 Census 2011 languages

Census 2011: the languages of India

What India’s 121 crore people named as their mother tongue in the 2011 Census — 121 languages, how they changed since 1971, their families, and how many languages each state has. Every figure is from the Registrar General’s Table C-16.

Languages12122 + 99

Mother tongues1,369from 19,569 names

Speak a Scheduled Language96.71%

Mother tongues with 10,000+ speakers270

How the Census counts languages

One questionQuestion 10 asked every person their mother tongue — the language spoken to them in childhood by their mother (or mainly spoken at home).
Recorded as saidEnumerators wrote down the name exactly as given. They were told not to decide whether it was a dialect of another language, and not to link religion and mother tongue.
19,569 → 1,369The raw names were scrutinised by linguists into rationalised mother tongues; a further 1,474 names stayed ‘unclassified’.
270 → 121Mother tongues with 10,000 or more speakers were grouped under languages: 22 in the Eighth Schedule and 99 outside it.

A mother tongue is what people call their language; a language groups related mother tongues. The Hindi total of 52,83,47,193, for example, includes 32,22,30,097 people who returned ‘Hindi’ itself, 5,05,79,447 who returned Bhojpuri and 2,58,06,344 who returned Rajasthani.

✓ Census of India 2011 — Language (Table C-16), Paper 1 of 2018, Registrar General of India ↗

How many languages does each state have?

Counted from the Census table for every state/UT. Darker = more languages. Click a state for its main languages.

2011 boundaries: Telangana was then part of Andhra Pradesh and Ladakh part of Jammu & Kashmir, so they show those figures. Maps show India’s boundaries as officially depicted by the Government of India.

The 22 Scheduled Languages, 1971–2011

Mother-tongue speakers in 2011, share of India’s people at each census, and growth since 2001.

#	Language	Speakers, 2011	% 1971	% 1981	% 1991	% 2001	% 2011	Growth 2001–11	Family
1	Hindi	52,83,47,193	36.99	38.74	39.29	41.03	43.63	+25.2%	Indo-Aryan
2	Bengali	9,72,37,669	8.17	7.71	8.30	8.11	8.03	+16.6%	Indo-Aryan
3	Marathi	8,30,26,680	7.62	7.43	7.45	6.99	6.86	+15.4%	Indo-Aryan
4	Telugu	8,11,27,740	8.16	7.61	7.87	7.19	6.70	+9.6%	Dravidian
5	Tamil	6,90,26,881	6.88	—	6.32	5.91	5.70	+13.5%	Dravidian
6	Gujarati	5,54,92,554	4.72	4.97	4.85	4.48	4.58	+20.4%	Indo-Aryan
7	Urdu	5,07,72,631	5.22	5.25	5.18	5.01	4.19	-1.5%	Indo-Aryan
8	Kannada	4,37,06,512	3.96	3.86	3.91	3.69	3.61	+15.3%	Dravidian
9	Odia	3,75,21,324	3.62	3.46	3.35	3.21	3.10	+13.6%	Indo-Aryan
10	Malayalam	3,48,38,819	4.00	3.86	3.62	3.21	2.88	+5.4%	Dravidian
11	Punjabi	3,31,24,726	2.57	2.95	2.79	2.83	2.74	+13.8%	Indo-Aryan
12	Assamese	1,53,11,351	1.63	—	1.56	1.28	1.26	+16.3%	Indo-Aryan
13	Maithili	1,35,83,464	1.12	1.13	0.93	1.18	1.12	+11.5%	Indo-Aryan
14	Santali	73,68,192	0.69	0.65	0.62	0.63	0.61	+13.9%	Austro-Asiatic
15	Kashmiri	67,97,587	0.46	0.48	—	0.54	0.56	+23.0%	Indo-Aryan
16	Nepali	29,26,168	0.26	0.20	0.25	0.28	0.24	+1.9%	Indo-Aryan
17	Sindhi	27,72,264	0.31	0.31	0.25	0.25	0.23	+9.3%	Indo-Aryan
18	Dogri	25,96,767	0.24	0.23	—	0.22	0.21	+13.8%	Indo-Aryan
19	Konkani	22,56,502	0.28	0.24	0.21	0.24	0.19	-9.3%	Indo-Aryan
20	Manipuri	17,61,079	0.14	0.14	0.15	0.14	0.15	+20.1%	Tibeto-Burmese
21	Bodo	14,82,929	0.10	—	0.15	0.13	0.12	+9.8%	Tibeto-Burmese
22	Sanskrit	24,821	—	—	0.01	—	—	+75.6%	Indo-Aryan

— : no figure. The 1981 Census was not held in Assam, Tamil Nadu’s 1981 records were lost in floods, and Jammu & Kashmir had no 1991 Census. Maithili was counted under Hindi until 1991. Percentages are the Census’s own.

✓ Census of India 2011 — Language (Table C-16), Paper 1 of 2018, Registrar General of India ↗ · The Eighth Schedule and Classical Languages →

Language families

The 121 languages fall into five families. Tibeto-Burmese has the most languages; Indo-Aryan has the most speakers.

Indo-Aryan 21 languages
94,50,52,555 · 78.05%
Iranian 1 languages
21,677 · 0.00%
Germanic 1 languages
2,59,678 · 0.02%
Dravidian 17 languages
23,78,40,116 · 19.64%
Austro-Asiatic 14 languages
1,34,93,080 · 1.11%
Tibeto-Burmese 66 languages
1,22,57,382 · 1.01%
Semito-Hamitic 1 languages
54,947 · 0.00%

Of the 22 Scheduled Languages, 15 are Indo-Aryan, 4 Dravidian, 2 Tibeto-Burmese and 1 Austro-Asiatic.

The 99 non-scheduled languages

Languages outside the Eighth Schedule with 10,000 or more speakers. Type to search.

#	Language	Speakers, 2011	Growth 2001–11	Family	Mainly in
1	Bhili/Bhilodi	1,04,13,637	+8.7%	Indo-Aryan	Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
2	Gondi	29,84,453	+10.0%	Dravidian	Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
3	Kurukh/Oraon	19,88,350	+13.5%	Dravidian	Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh
4	Khandeshi	18,60,236	-10.4%	Indo-Aryan	Maharashtra, Gujarat
5	Tulu	18,46,427	+7.2%	Dravidian	Karnataka, Kerala
6	Khasi	14,31,344	+26.8%	Austro-Asiatic	Meghalaya, Assam
7	Ho	14,21,418	+36.3%	Austro-Asiatic	Jharkhand, Odisha
8	Garo	11,45,323	+28.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Meghalaya, Assam
9	Mundari	11,28,228	+6.3%	Austro-Asiatic	Jharkhand, Odisha
10	Tripuri	10,11,294	+18.4%	Tibeto-Burmese	Tripura, Mizoram
11	Kui	9,41,488	+2.8%	Dravidian	Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
12	Lushai/Mizo	8,30,846	+23.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Mizoram, Manipur
13	Halabi	7,66,297	+29.1%	Indo-Aryan	Chhattisgarh, Odisha
14	Korku	7,27,133	+26.6%	Austro-Asiatic	Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
15	Miri/Mishing	6,29,954	+14.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
16	Karbi/Mikir	5,28,503	+26.0%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Meghalaya
17	Munda	5,05,922	+7.8%	Austro-Asiatic	Odisha, Assam
18	Savara	4,09,549	+62.2%	Austro-Asiatic	Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
19	Koya	4,07,423	+12.5%	Dravidian	Andhra Pradesh, Odisha
20	Nissi/Dafla	4,06,532	+92.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand
21	Kharia	2,97,614	+24.2%	Austro-Asiatic	Jharkhand, Odisha
22	Ao	2,60,008	-0.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Tripura
23	English	2,59,678	+14.7%	Germanic	Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu
24	Adi	2,48,834	+25.4%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
25	Konyak	2,44,477	-1.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam
26	Mao	2,40,205	—	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
27	Malto	2,34,991	+4.5%	Dravidian	Jharkhand, Bihar
28	Bhotia	2,29,954	+183.9%	Tibeto-Burmese	Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh
29	Thado	2,29,340	+20.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Assam
30	Kisan	2,06,100	+46.1%	Dravidian	Odisha, West Bengal
31	Tangkhul	1,87,276	+31.9%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
32	Tibetan	1,82,685	+114.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka
33	Lotha	1,79,467	+5.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam
34	Khond/Kondh	1,55,548	+31.2%	Dravidian	Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
35	Angami	1,52,796	+15.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Maharashtra
36	Rabha	1,39,986	-15.0%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Meghalaya
37	Dimasa	1,37,184	+22.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Nagaland
38	Kolami	1,28,451	+5.4%	Dravidian	Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh
39	Kabui	1,22,931	+29.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
40	Coorgi/Kodagu	1,13,857	-31.5%	Dravidian	Karnataka, Odisha
41	Lahnda	1,08,791	+18.0%	Indo-Aryan	Haryana, Punjab
42	Hmar	98,988	+18.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Assam
43	Chakru/Chokri	91,216	+9.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Rajasthan
44	Kuki	83,968	+58.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Assam
45	Kinnauri	83,561	+28.4%	Tibeto-Burmese	Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand
46	Yimchungre	83,259	-9.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Manipur
47	Bishnupuriya	79,646	+2.7%	Indo-Aryan	Assam, Tripura
48	Paite	79,507	+24.0%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Mizoram
49	Sangtam	76,000	-9.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam
50	Chang	66,852	+7.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh
51	Rengma	65,328	+6.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam
52	Zeliang	63,529	+3.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Manipur
53	Khiemnungan	61,983	+64.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam
54	Konda	60,699	+7.9%	Dravidian	Andhra Pradesh, Odisha
55	Wancho	59,154	+20.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
56	Arabic/Arbi	54,947	+6.2%	Semito-Hamitic	Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
57	Phom	54,416	-55.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh
58	Parji	52,349	+2.2%	Dravidian	Chhattisgarh, Assam
59	Zemi	50,925	+49.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Manipur
60	Liangmei	49,811	+45.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
61	Lepcha	47,331	-6.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Sikkim, West Bengal
62	Koda/Kora	47,268	+9.9%	Austro-Asiatic	West Bengal, Jharkhand
63	Mishmi	44,100	+29.9%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
64	Vaiphei	42,748	+7.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Assam
65	Lakher	42,429	+22.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Mizoram, Rajasthan
66	Khezha	41,625	+2.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Manipur
67	Gadaba	40,976	+56.0%	Austro-Asiatic	Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
68	Limbu	40,835	+9.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Sikkim, West Bengal
69	Halam	38,915	+1.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Tripura, Assam
70	Tangsa	38,624	-3.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
71	Mogh	36,665	+19.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Tripura, Mizoram
72	Koch	36,434	+17.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Meghalaya, Assam
73	Lalung	33,921	+25.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Meghalaya
74	Maram	32,460	-13.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
75	Deori	32,376	+15.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
76	Shina	32,247	-6.2%	Indo-Aryan	Jammu & Kashmir, Assam
77	Nocte	30,839	-6.4%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
78	Juang	30,378	+28.1%	Austro-Asiatic	Odisha, Nagaland
79	Nicobarese	29,099	+1.1%	Austro-Asiatic	Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu
80	Pawi	28,639	+14.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Mizoram, Nagaland
81	Korwa	28,453	-17.7%	Austro-Asiatic	Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand
82	Bhumij	27,506	-42.0%	Austro-Asiatic	Jharkhand, West Bengal
83	Anal	27,217	+17.4%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Meghalaya
84	Zou	26,545	+27.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Meghalaya
85	Maring	25,814	+15.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Nagaland
86	Afghani/Kabuli/Pashto	21,677	+95.5%	Iranian	Jammu & Kashmir, NCT of Delhi
87	Pochury	21,654	+29.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Manipur
88	Tamang	20,154	+15.2%	Tibeto-Burmese	Sikkim, West Bengal
89	Jatapu	20,028	-49.1%	Dravidian	Andhra Pradesh, Odisha
90	Chakhesang	19,846	+73.9%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Manipur
91	Gangte	16,542	+14.1%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Mizoram
92	Sherpa	16,012	-12.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Sikkim, West Bengal
93	Rai	15,644	+8.8%	Tibeto-Burmese	Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh
94	Kom	15,108	+3.0%	Tibeto-Burmese	Manipur, Goa
95	Ladakhi	14,952	-85.7%	Tibeto-Burmese	Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha
96	Balti	13,774	-31.3%	Tibeto-Burmese	Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand
97	Monpa	13,703	-75.5%	Tibeto-Burmese	Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka
98	Lahauli	11,574	-48.9%	Tibeto-Burmese	Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh
99	Sema	10,802	-89.6%	Tibeto-Burmese	Nagaland, Assam

A further 18,75,542 people (0.15%) returned other languages, each with fewer than 10,000 speakers in India or not identifiable. Compared with 2001, Simte and Persian dropped out of the list and Mao joined it.

State by state

The main mother tongues of each state and UT in 2011 (as a share of its people).

Jammu & Kashmir 1,25,41,302
1. Kashmiri 53.3%
2. Hindi 20.8%
3. Dogri 20.0%
4. Punjabi 1.8%
4 languages at 1%+ · 97.3% Scheduled
Himachal Pradesh 68,64,602
1. Hindi 85.9%
2. Punjabi 9.0%
3. Nepali 1.3%
4. Kinnauri 1.2%
4 languages at 1%+ · 97.9% Scheduled
Punjab 2,77,43,338
1. Punjabi 89.8%
2. Hindi 9.4%
3. Urdu 0.1%
4. Bengali 0.1%
2 languages at 1%+ · 99.9% Scheduled
Chandigarh 10,55,450
1. Hindi 73.6%
2. Punjabi 22.0%
3. Urdu 1.0%
4. Nepali 0.6%
3 languages at 1%+ · 99.8% Scheduled
Uttarakhand 1,00,86,292
1. Hindi 89.2%
2. Urdu 4.2%
3. Punjabi 2.6%
4. Bengali 1.5%
5 languages at 1%+ · 99.4% Scheduled
Haryana 2,53,51,462
1. Hindi 88.1%
2. Punjabi 9.5%
3. Urdu 1.5%
4. Bengali 0.3%
3 languages at 1%+ · 99.9% Scheduled
NCT of Delhi 1,67,87,941
1. Hindi 84.9%
2. Punjabi 5.2%
3. Urdu 5.2%
4. Bengali 1.3%
4 languages at 1%+ · 99.8% Scheduled
Rajasthan 6,85,48,437
1. Hindi 89.4%
2. Bhili/Bhilodi 5.2%
3. Punjabi 3.3%
4. Urdu 1.0%
3 languages at 1%+ · 94.6% Scheduled
Uttar Pradesh 19,98,12,341
1. Hindi 94.1%
2. Urdu 5.4%
3. Punjabi 0.3%
4. Bengali 0.1%
2 languages at 1%+ · 100.0% Scheduled
Bihar 10,40,99,452
1. Hindi 77.5%
2. Maithili 12.6%
3. Urdu 8.4%
4. Bengali 0.8%
3 languages at 1%+ · 99.8% Scheduled
Sikkim 6,10,577
1. Nepali 62.6%
2. Hindi 8.0%
3. Bhotia 6.9%
4. Limbu 6.3%
9 languages at 1%+ · 73.6% Scheduled
Arunachal Pradesh 13,83,727
1. Nissi/Dafla 28.6%
2. Adi 17.4%
3. Bengali 7.3%
4. Hindi 7.1%
11 languages at 1%+ · 27.9% Scheduled
Nagaland 19,78,502
1. Konyak 12.3%
2. Ao 11.7%
3. Lotha 9.0%
4. Angami 7.7%
17 languages at 1%+ · 11.9% Scheduled
Manipur 28,55,794
1. Manipuri 53.3%
2. Mao 7.9%
3. Thado 7.8%
4. Tangkhul 6.4%
14 languages at 1%+ · 58.2% Scheduled
Mizoram 10,97,206
1. Lushai/Mizo 73.2%
2. Bengali 9.8%
3. Lakher 3.8%
4. Tripuri 3.0%
7 languages at 1%+ · 12.4% Scheduled
Tripura 36,73,917
1. Bengali 65.7%
2. Tripuri 25.9%
3. Hindi 2.1%
4. Mogh 1.0%
3 languages at 1%+ · 69.8% Scheduled
Meghalaya 29,66,889
1. Khasi 46.6%
2. Garo 31.6%
3. Bengali 7.8%
4. Hindi 2.1%
6 languages at 1%+ · 14.7% Scheduled
Assam 3,12,05,576
1. Assamese 48.4%
2. Bengali 28.9%
3. Hindi 6.7%
4. Bodo 4.5%
7 languages at 1%+ · 92.8% Scheduled
West Bengal 9,12,76,115
1. Bengali 86.2%
2. Hindi 7.0%
3. Santali 2.7%
4. Urdu 1.8%
5 languages at 1%+ · 99.5% Scheduled
Jharkhand 3,29,88,134
1. Hindi 62.0%
2. Santali 9.9%
3. Bengali 9.7%
4. Urdu 6.0%
8 languages at 1%+ · 90.5% Scheduled
Odisha 4,19,74,218
1. Odia 82.7%
2. Hindi 3.0%
3. Kui 2.2%
4. Santali 2.1%
7 languages at 1%+ · 91.9% Scheduled
Chhattisgarh 2,55,45,198
1. Hindi 83.6%
2. Gondi 4.2%
3. Odia 3.6%
4. Halabi 2.8%
5 languages at 1%+ · 90.7% Scheduled
Madhya Pradesh 7,26,26,809
1. Hindi 88.6%
2. Bhili/Bhilodi 4.9%
3. Marathi 1.7%
4. Gondi 1.6%
5 languages at 1%+ · 92.7% Scheduled
Gujarat 6,04,39,692
1. Gujarati 86.0%
2. Hindi 7.1%
3. Sindhi 2.0%
4. Marathi 1.5%
5 languages at 1%+ · 98.3% Scheduled
Daman & Diu 2,43,247
1. Gujarati 50.8%
2. Hindi 36.3%
3. Marathi 4.5%
4. Bengali 2.2%
5 languages at 1%+ · 99.0% Scheduled
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 3,43,709
1. Bhili/Bhilodi 37.3%
2. Hindi 26.2%
3. Gujarati 21.5%
4. Marathi 7.0%
6 languages at 1%+ · 62.3% Scheduled
Maharashtra 11,23,74,333
1. Marathi 68.9%
2. Hindi 12.9%
3. Urdu 6.7%
4. Gujarati 2.1%
7 languages at 1%+ · 95.4% Scheduled
Andhra Pradesh 8,45,80,777
1. Telugu 83.6%
2. Urdu 8.9%
3. Hindi 3.7%
4. Tamil 0.8%
3 languages at 1%+ · 99.1% Scheduled
Karnataka 6,10,95,297
1. Kannada 66.5%
2. Urdu 10.8%
3. Telugu 5.8%
4. Tamil 3.5%
9 languages at 1%+ · 96.5% Scheduled
Goa 14,58,545
1. Konkani 66.1%
2. Marathi 10.9%
3. Hindi 10.3%
4. Kannada 4.7%
5 languages at 1%+ · 98.8% Scheduled
Lakshadweep 64,473
1. Malayalam 84.2%
2. Tamil 0.6%
3. Hindi 0.3%
4. Bengali 0.2%
1 languages at 1%+ · 85.5% Scheduled
Kerala 3,34,06,061
1. Malayalam 97.0%
2. Tamil 1.5%
3. Tulu 0.4%
4. Kannada 0.3%
2 languages at 1%+ · 99.6% Scheduled
Tamil Nadu 7,21,47,030
1. Tamil 88.4%
2. Telugu 5.9%
3. Kannada 1.8%
4. Urdu 1.8%
5 languages at 1%+ · 99.9% Scheduled
Puducherry 12,47,953
1. Tamil 88.2%
2. Telugu 6.0%
3. Malayalam 3.8%
4. Urdu 0.7%
3 languages at 1%+ · 99.9% Scheduled
Andaman & Nicobar Islands 3,80,581
1. Bengali 28.5%
2. Hindi 19.3%
3. Tamil 15.2%
4. Telugu 13.2%
8 languages at 1%+ · 85.2% Scheduled

✍ Practise Census 2011 languages Exam-style questions and flashcards made from this page. ✍ Take the quiz 🃏 Flashcards 🔤 Languages and scripts

How we check: the figures are read from the Census table and the build fails unless every language’s state rows add up to its India total, the totals match the report’s own statements, and each state’s languages add up to its population. The counts of languages per state are YugMap’s, worked out from those figures.