Over 16 per cent of the households in the State are headed by women, data from Census 2011 recently released by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India show.
The percentage of households headed by women in the State is higher than the 13.17 per cent reported at the national level, where 3.27 crore of the total 24.88 crore households are headed by women.
In Tamil Nadu, 29 lakh of the 1.84 crore households are headed by women.
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At 16.65 lakh, rural areas have more households headed by women compared to urban areas (12.99 lakh).
Women also head about 8,600 households in the State where there are at least 11 persons or more in each of the households.
The fairer sex also heads 1.10 lakh households with seven to 10 members and 14.33 lakh households with three to six members.
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Muslim women Among various religious groups, more Muslim women head households than women from other faiths.
Over 18 per cent of Muslim households in the State are headed by women followed by Hindu women (15.82 per cent) and Christian women (8.14 per cent), the data on households by religion, sex of the head of the household and its size reveals.
Contrary to the pattern observed in women-headed households in general where the numbers are more in rural areas, more women-headed Muslim households are in urban areas (6.08 lakh) than in rural areas (1.67 lakh).
Of the 48,000 households which have at least 11 members in each of them, over 34,000 are Hindu, over 10,700 are Muslim and about 2,300 are Christian.
88.44% Hindu households Going by the data, there are about 88.44 per cent Hindu, 6.14 per cent Christian and 5.16 per cent Muslim households in the State, which has over 1.84 crore households.
*Corrections and clarifications
The earlier version of this article has mentioned the household figures in Tamil Nadu as 18.47 crore. The correct number is 1.84 crore. The error has been rectifed.