In the past 10 years, the population of the Union Territory has increased by 2.73 lakh, giving it a population growth rate of 28.1 per cent. The total population as per the 2011 Census is 12,47,953.
“Since the provisional population data revealed in 2011, there is a difference of 3,489 or and addition of 0.2 per cent,” Deputy Director of Census J. Jayaprakasam said during the release of the Primary Census Abstract at a function here on Monday.
“While 68 per cent (8,52,753) live in urban areas, 32 per cent of the population (3,95,200) live in rural areas. The most populous district in the UT is Puducherry, where 76.14 per cent (9,50,289) of the population lives, followed by Karaikal with 16.04 per cent (2,00,222),” he said.
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Of the municipalities, Oulgaret has the highest population of 3,00,104 followed by Puducherry with 2,44,377. Mahe municipality has the least population with 41,816 persons.
In the Primary Census Abstract, data has been provided on the Scheduled Castes, Literacy and Works status at a state, district, taluk, municipality, village and ward level.
According to this data, the literacy rate of the UT has improved by 4.7 per cent to 85.9 per cent. The difference in male and female literacy is 10.6 per cent, with the male literacy being 91.3 per cent and the female literacy at 80.7 per cent.
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The gender gap in literacy has reduced from 15.7 per cent to 10.6 per cent since 2001. Further the female literacy has increased by 6.8 per cent, while the male literacy has increased by only 2.7 per cent, the data reveals.
SC/ST population
In terms of the SC/ST population, the total population of Scheduled Caste in the UT is 1,96,325 with 95,512 males and 1,00,813 females, which is an increase of 24.4 per cent since the 2001 census. Of this population, 56.3 per cent live in rural areas. The SC population constitutes 15.7 per cent of the total population.
The Primary Census Abstract also contains details on the workers in Puducherry and the kind of work they are engaged in.
The total number of workers in the Union Territory is 4,44,968 — which registers a growth of 29.9 per cent. Of the total, 75 per cent (3,32,931) are men and 25 per cent (1,12,037) are women. The Work Participation Rate in the UT is 35.7 per cent.
Of the total workers, 12,099 (2.7 per cent) are cultivators and 68,391 (15.4 per cent) are agricultural labourers, which means that 18 per cent of the total workers are engaged in agricultural activities. The percentage has come down from 24.3 per cent in 2001, the data reveals.