Indian Geography / Population of India
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There are 4 stages of population growth in India. India accounts for 17.5% of total world population and 2.4% geographical area of the world. India ranks second in the world's most populous countries, next only to China.
It is the period of stagnant growth of population as the growth rate was very low in this period. During 1911-21 period, India even recorded negative
growth rate. In this stage, there was very high birth rate along with very high death rate.
Poor health, lack of awareness, famines, lack of basic amenities
and food scarcity were some of the reasons for high death rates during this period. The characteristics of primitive economy is represented in the first stage.
During this period the population growth was steady. The year 1921 is considered as year of Great divide because after the year 1921, India's
population never got decreased.
During this stage, the mortality rate got reduced because of improvement in health and medical services but the birth rate
remained same which lead to higher growth rate in population when compared to the first phase.
It is the period of population explosion in the country. During this period, there was rapid fall in death rate but also witnessed high fertility rate.
During this period, due to initiation of development programmes, there was improvement in Indian economic conditions which lead to better standards of living.
This naturally increased the fertility rate because of higher affordability of the people.
From 1981 onwards, though there is high growth in population but it shows some definite signs of slowing down. It is because there is a downward trend in birth rate due to rise in mean age of marriage, use of contraceptive measures to delay conception, female education, etc.