New Delhi: The proportion of people following various religions in India has remained almost the same over a decade, according to the census taken in 2011.

The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner released the data on Population by Religious Communities of Census 2011 on Tuesday, more than four years after the country completed counting its people.

Although the data was ready in early 2014, the government withheld its publication in view of the general election held during April and May the same year.

The new government that took charge on May 26, 2014, delayed its publication further, despite demands from various quarters.

The 2001 Census data on religion was released in 2004.

The census data shows that the much hyped growth rate among Muslims in India was slower than it was in the previous decades and that there was no drastic reduction in the Hindu population as some groups feared.

The new Census data showed the number of people who did not state their religion went up by 294 percent between 2001 and 2011.

During the same period Muslim recorded the lowest growth rate in India’s history.

The Muslim population still grows at a faster rate than the Hindu population, but the gap between the two growth rates is narrowing fast.

India now has 966.3 million Hindus, who make up 79.8 percent of its population followed by 172.2 million Muslims (14.23 percent) and 27.8 million Christians (2.3 percent).

Sikhs crossed the 20 million mark and stood at 1.7 percent of the population with 208.8 million. The others are Buddhist 8.4 million (0.7 percent) and Jains 4.5 million (0.4 percent).

People of other religions and persuasions accounted for 0.7 percent.

The rate of increase of Muslims is higher than that of Hindus. Demographers say this was because of higher fertility among Muslims and higher child mortality among Hindus. Muslims also have a greater life expectancy. However, Muslim fertility rates in India are falling faster than among Hindus, Pew Research’s Future of World Religions report showed recently. The Muslim community is expected to reach replacement levels of fertility by 2050.

The data shows that between 2001 and 2011, Hindu population grew by 16.76 percent, while Muslims increased by 24.6 percent. The rate in the previous decade was 19.92 percent for Hindus and 29.52 percent for Muslims. As a long-term trend, the communities’ growth rates are converging.

“This is completely along expected lines, and has been an ongoing process,” P. Arokiasamy, demographer and Professor at the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, told The Hindu.

“With rising education and changing family expectations, declining fertility is an expected demographic phenomenon. It begins among better educated groups with better access to health care — as in India’s southern States — and then other groups catch up and converge,” Dr. Arokiasamy explained.

In Kerala, for instance, the Muslim fertility rate (while higher than among the Hindus) is extremely low, especially compared with all communities in the northern states, he said.

The numbers show that the sex ratio among Muslims, already better than among Hindus, has further improved.

The sex ratio among Muslims now stands at 951 females for every 1,000 males, substantially better than 936 in 2001. Hindus, on the other hand, has 939 females for every 1,000 males, a slight improvement over the 2001 value of 931.

Assam remains the state with the largest Muslim population as a proportion (34.22 percent) and saw the largest increase in the Muslim proportion between 2001 and 2011, followed by Uttarakhand and Kerala.

The data comes in the backdrop of much fear-mongering over Muslims and their population, and RSS thinkers were quick to term the new data as proof of the end of Hindus, even while the numbers belie their claim, The Hindu reports.

Notable increase in Hindu population was recorded in Uttar Pradesh (24.6 percent), Jharkhand (21.1 percent), Rajasthan (20.9 percent), Madhya Pradesh (20 percent), Puducherry (28.9 percent) and National Capital Territory of Delhi (20.7 percent).

The Muslim population increase was noted in Mizoram (46.9 percent), Haryana (45.7 percent), Chandigarh Punjab (40.2 percent), Nagaland (39.9 percent), Uttarakhand (39 percent) and NCT or Delhi (33percent).

Kerala recorded a rise of 12.8 percent in Muslim population whereas Hindu had only 2.2 percent increase and Christians 1.4 percent.

The decadal growth rate for Christian population was higher than 100 percent in Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh, but the community recorded a negative growth in five states including Nagaland (-2.8), Andhra Pradesh (-4.4), Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Sikhs recorded a high decadal growth rate in Odisha (25.7), Gujarat (27.8), Andhra Pradesh (29.8), Kerala (38.1) and Tamil Nadu (53).