Sikkim Population 2024

February 19, 2024 by Babji

Sikkim state with its elegant natural beauty of snowing mountains, is an ever enchanting luxuriant forests with exotic flora and fauna, waterfalls, lakes, holy caves, hot springs ad, one of the biodiversity hotspots in the Eastern Himalayas. Sikkim is the state in north-eastern India, borders Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east, China to the north, West Bengal to the south, Tibet in the north and northeast of which three sides are covered with Himalayan region. Sikkim population in 2024 is estimated to be 691 Thousands (6.91 Lakhs), By Aug 2023, Sikkim population is projected to be 6.89 Lakhs as per Unique Identification Aadhar India, updated 31, May 2023. As per NFHS 2019-2021 report, Total Fertility Rate of Sikkim State is 1.1 children per women compared to 1.2 in 2016. Sikkim is notable for its biodiversity, Mostly 35% of the Sikkim state is covered by the Khangchendzonga National Park, which includes the famous Kanchenjunga (8598 meters), the third highest peak in the world. The total area of the park is covered an area of 850 sq.km. The Sikkim state is being the part of inner mountain ranges of Himalayas is having hilly with varied elevations ranging from 300 meters to 7000 meters. The name Sikkim is believed to be the combination of two Limbu words 'Su', which means new, and 'khyim', which means house. It is the smallest state in India with 7,096 sq km and area rank is 28, density of Sikkim is 86 per sq km which is lower than national average 382 per sq km. The Lepcha people also called 'Rongkup' are considered to be the earliest inhabitants of Sikkim, they also found in the regions of Bhutan, Tibet and northern part of West Bengal. Sikkim accounts for the largest share of cardamom production in India. Sikkim has the major tourist spots in the north-eastern region of India, also popular for rejuvenate the mind and body with the beautiful landscapes of nature, The largest portion of Sikkim is in its North-West, a large number of mountains having the altitude of about 9000 meters stand here. Gangtok is the capital and the largest town of the Indian state of Sikkim. As on 2011, The total Sikkim population growth in this decade was 12.36 percent while in previous year in 2001 was 33.06 percent. As per 2011 census, out of this total population 25.15 per cent of the state population lives in urban areas while 74.85 per cent of the state population lives in the rural areas.

Image Source: Sikkim population gathering for Magh Sakranti, held at banks of rivers

Census year	Persons	Absolute	Percentage	Males	Females
1901	59,014	-	-	30,795	28,219
1911	87,920	28,906	48.98	45,059	42,861
1921	81,721	-6,199	-7.05	41,492	40,229
1931	109,808	28,087	34.37	55,825	53,983
1941	121,520	11,712	10.67	63,289	58,231
1951	137,725	16,205	13.34	72,210	65,515
1961	162,189	24,464	17.76	85,193	76,996
1971	209,843	47,654	29.38	112,662	97,181
1981	316,385	106,542	50.77	172,440	143,945
1991	406,457	90,072	28.47	216,427	190,030
2001	540,851	134,394	33.06	288,484	252,367
2011	610,577	69,726	12.89	323,070	287,507

Source: A-2 Decadal Variation In Population Since 1901

Population Pyramid

Source: 2011 Census: Population In Five Year Age-Group

Sikkim Population by Religion

The Rumtek monastery in Sikkim is most famous religious monuments. According to 2011 census, Hinduism is the major religion with 57.76%, followed by Buddhist with 27.39% and Christian with 9.9%. The total population of Hindu is 352,662 and Buddhist are 167,216.

Religion	Persons	Percentage	Males	Females
Hindu	352,662	57.76	189,972	162,690
Muslim	9,867	1.62	6,536	3,331
Christian	60,522	9.91	30,290	30,232
Sikh	1,868	0.31	1,592	276
Buddhist	167,216	27.39	85,302	81,914
Jain	314	0.05	181	133
Others	16,300	2.67	8,323	7,977
Not Stated	1,828	0.30	874	954

Source: Details of Religion In Main Table C-1- 2011 (India & States/UTs)

Ethnic groups of Sikkim

The tribe population of sikkim as per census 2011 are:

Tribes	Population as per Census 2011
All Scheduled Tribes	206,360
Bhutia (including Chumbipa, Dopthapa, Dukpa, Kagatey, Sherpa, Tibetan, Tromopa, Yolmo)	69,598
Lepcha	42,909
Limboo	53,703
Tamang	37,696
Generic Tribes etc.	2,454

Languages spoken in Sikkim

The official languages of the Sikkim state are English, and the Himalayan language of Nepali, Sikkimese and Lepcha. The Lepcha is the have their own language and own script, derived from tibetan script and also called 'Rong'. Other than Sikkimese and Lepcha, other languages are Limbu, Rai, Sherpa and Tamang, Magar, Mukhia and Newari. According to 2011 census, Nepali is widely spoken language with 62.5% of the Sikkim population, followed by Hindi with 7.9%, Bhotia with 6.8%, Limbu with 6.3%, Lepcha with 6.2%, Sherpa with 2.2% and Tamang with 1.9%, Rai with 1.22% and Tibetan with 0.45%.

Languages	Persons	Percentage	Rural	Urban
Nepali	382,200	62.5965	291,531	90,669
Hindi	48,586	7.9574	17,938	30,648
Bhotia	41,889	6.8606	29,216	12,673
Limbu	38,733	6.3437	37,200	1,533
Lepcha	38,313	6.2749	34,545	3,768
Sherpa	13,681	2.2407	12,348	1,333
Tamang	11,734	1.9218	10,280	1,454
Rai	7,471	1.2236	6,999	472
Bengali	6,986	1.1442	2,956	4,030
Tibetan	2,785	0.4561	1,716	1,069
Urdu	2,001	0.3277	597	1,404

Source: 2011 Census: Language and Mother Tongue

Disability

Below is the disable people statistics of the Sikkim state.

Type of disability	Total Persons	Cultivators	Agriculture labor	HHI	Other workers
Total disabled population	8,918	4,259	1,082	148	3,429
In Seeing	1,434	663	138	20	613
In Hearing	3,241	1,464	363	52	1,362
In Speech	790	420	153	8	209
In Movement	833	392	75	18	348
Mental Retardation	174	91	23	2	58
Mental Illness	167	98	28	6	35
Any Other	1,217	491	136	25	565
Multiple disability	1,062	640	166	17	239

Source: 2011 Census: Distribution of Disabled(India & States/UTs)

Sikkim Population projection

Sikkim population in 2023 is estimated to be 690 Thousands, population in 2022 is estimated to be 683 Thousands (6.83 Lakhs), population in 2021 is estimated to be 677 Thousands (6.77 Lakhs), and in 2020 is estimated to be 690 Thousands (6.9 Lakhs).

District wise population in Sikkim

Sikkim is divided into 4 districts, South, East, West and North district. Below is the Sikkim district wise population as per Census 2011 and 2020 projection. North district is the largest with 4,226 sq.km in area but population figures, it is the smallest with 49,828. West district is the second largest 1166 sq.km in area but in term of population it is the third highest with 155,536, South district is the least 750 sq.km. in area with the population of 167,409. East district is the third highest with 954 sq.km in area the population is 323,285.