A snapshot of Odisha’s population

Odisha is one of the eastern littoral states of India.

In recent times Odisha population has leapfrogged to 4 .2 crores as per details from Census 2011, an increase from figure of 3.68 crores in 2001 census. The total population of Odisha as per 2011 census is 41,974,218 of which male and female are 21,212,136 and 20,762,082 respectively.

In 2001, total population was 36,804,660 in which males were 18,660,570 while females were 18,144,090. The total population growth in this decade was 14.05 per cent while in previous decade it was 15.94 per cent. The population of Odisha forms 3.47 per cent of India in 2011. In 2001, the figure was 3.58 per cent.

Recently as per Orissa census data, 90.35% of houses are owned while 6.68% were rented. In all, 75.07% of couples in Odisha lived in single-family. In the Census of 2011, India had registered a decadal growth of 17.70 per cent and Odisha that of 14.05 per cent, over the Census 2001 figures. Thus, the growth rate in the state is lower by 3.65 percentage points compared to the national average. The growth rate of the population did not display a systematic increase.

It varied from decade to decade. After independence, the growth rate of population during the decade 1941-51 was only 6.38 % as against the all India growth rate of 13.31 % which increased to 19.82 % during 1951-61 and the rate of growth was the highest during 1961- 71 with 25.05 % which came down to 20.17 % during the decade 1971-81 and it further reduced slightly to 20.06 % during 1981-91. During the last decade, 1991- 2001 the growth rate has decreased to 16.25 % as against the all India growth rate of 21.54 %.

Empowered Action Group (EAG) was set up to facilitate the preparation of area-specific programmes in eight states, namely, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand which have lagged behind in containing population growth to manageable levels. EAG states constitute 45.9 per cent share in the total population of the country. Odisha is the fifth most populous among the EAG states. Bihar has registered the highest growth rate of 25.1 per cent whereas Odisha has registered the lowest growth rate of 14.0 per cent among EAG states.

During 2001-2011, the share of children to total population has declined and the decline was more for female children than male children in the age group of 0-6 years. While the size of the child population in the age group (0-6 years) is declining with a decline in the share of children in the total population, the share of girls in 0-6 years is declining faster than that of boys of 0-6 years. This process has led to missing nearly 2.2% girl children compared to 1.0% missing boy children in 2011, compared to 2001.

There has been a steady increase in the country’s urban population over the decades. The population has increased from 26 million in 1901 to 377 million in 2011 and from 10 per cent to 31 per cent during the same period. India’s urbanization presents a contrasting picture – a large urban population with low urbanization and showing a growth rate of 2.76% per annum during 2001-2011.

The annual exponential growth rate of urban population and rate of urbanization shows that the urban population of India had an urban population of about 79 million in 1961, which constituted about 18% of the total population. The average growth rate of the urban population was 2.32% during 1951-61 which accelerated up to 3.79% during 1971-81. This was the highest urban growth since independence. After 1981, the urban growth rate decelerated to 3.09% during 1981-91 and further declined to 2.75 during 1991- 2001.

However, the declining growth rate was reversed during 2001-2011. The number of urban centers increased from 3,126 in 1971 to 5,161 by 2001 and to about 8000 in 2011. One perceptible trend noticeable is the slowing down of urbanization – a large number of states, as well as urban centers at all levels, experienced this slowdown.

According to the 2011 Census, urbanization has increased at a faster rate than expected. This has reversed the declining trend in the growth rate of the urban population observed during the 1980s and 1990s. Also, for the first time since independence, the absolute increase in the urban population was higher than that in the rural population. This has huge implications on infrastructure and provision of other civic amenities in urban areas.

As per 1941 Census, only three per cent of the total population in Odisha lived in cities and towns as against 13.86% for India. Though the percentage of urban population is less in Odisha, the pace of urbanization in the State between 1941 and 2011 was low as compared to the pattern for the country as a whole. In the 2011 census, the proportion of the population living in the urban areas of the state stood at 16.68% as compared to 31.16% for the country. Population density of Odisha stood at 269 per sq. km in 2011. Odisha ranks 31st in the list of most urbanized states of the country, while in terms of the actual urban population, the state ranks 11th in the list of states with the largest urban population.

Of the total population of Odisha state, around 83.31 per cent live in the villages of rural areas. In actual numbers, males and females were 17,586,203 and 17,384,359 respectively. The total population of rural areas of Odisha state was 34,970,562. Ganjam district has the highest rural population of the state that is at 7.9%.

The total population of Scheduled Tribes in Odisha is 22.8% as per Census 2011 and has increased marginally from 22.1% in 2001. As per the 2011 census data,, 22.3% are male and 23.4% female. The Scheduled Tribes population in the State is overwhelmingly rural, with 94.5 per cent residing in villages. District-wise distribution of ST population shows that Malkangiri district has the highest proportion of STs (57.4 per cent) followed by Mayurbhanj (56.6 per cent), Rayagada (55.8 per cent) and Nabarangapur (55 per cent). Puri district has the lowest by the proportion of STs (0.3 per cent). The total population of Scheduled Tribe in Odisha is 22.8% as per Census 2011 and has increased marginally from 22.1% in 2001. As per the 2011 census data, 22.3% are male and 23.4% female.

Among the districts, Khordha (800) turns out to be the most densely inhabited followed by Jagatsinghapur (682) both in 2001 and 2011 Censuses. The lowest density of population is recorded in Kandhamal district (91) for both the censuses.

With its ever-growing industries, Odisha population has every chance of escalating in the coming future and lots to offer for the nation’s demographic dividend.