West Bengal Population

West Bengal is the eastern state of India located along the Bay of Bengal in the east, bordering Bihar, Jharkhand to the west, Odisha to the north-west, Bangladesh to the east, Nepal and Bhutan to the north. West Bengal population in 2023 is estimated to be 99.09 Million (9.91 Crores), and it is the fourth-largest populated state in India. By May 2023 West Bengal population is projected to be 9.9 crores as per Unique Identification Aadhar India, updated 31, May 2023. As per NFHS 2019-2021 report, Total Fertility Rate of West Bengal State is 1.6 children per women compared to 1.8 in 2016. Its area is 88,752 sq km and density is 1100 people per sq km. The British colonial rule was started in Bengal from 18th century, at the time of India Independence Bengal was partitioned into West Bengal and East Bengal, todays Bangladesh. Calcutta which is today's Kolkata served as British India capital for many years and currently the third largest metorpolitan city in India. The native name of the state is 'PaschimBanga', 'Paschim' means west and 'Banga' means ancient kingdom 'vanga'. As per Niti Aayog 2016 report, Total Fertility Rate is 1.6.

Image Source: Bengali people gathering at Swachh Bharat Mission, North 24 Paraganas, West Bengal

The people of West Bengal is called 'Bengali' and Bengali is the native language spoken through out the state. The popular persons like Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose are from Bengal.

The census of Bengal was first conducted in 1872, and then in 1881 by British India was recorded as 62,705,718[1] before the Bengal partition. The West Bengal population was recorded in 1901 was 16.9 million, Independent India's first census in 1951 was 26 million, increase of 9 million in the span of 50 years since from 1901 to 1951. The population recorded in 2001 was 80 million, 3 times increase from 1951. By 2011, 91 million was recorded, 13.8% increase in population from 2001 census. The population in 2021 will be 99 million and the growth rate is 8.7%.

Census year	Persons	Absolute	Percentage	Males	Females
1901	16,940,088	-	-	8,708,978	8,231,110
1911	17,998,769	1,058,681	6.25	9,349,419	8,649,350
1921	17,474,348	-524,421	-2.91	9,173,148	8,301,200
1931	18,897,036	1,422,688	8.14	9,997,035	8,900,001
1941	23,229,552	4,332,516	22.93	12,545,269	10,684,283
1951	26,299,980	3,070,428	13.22	14,105,519	12,194,461
1961	34,926,279	8,626,299	32.8	18,599,144	16,327,135
1971	44,312,011	9,385,732	26.87	23,435,987	20,876,024
1981	54,580,647	10,268,636	23.17	28,560,901	26,019,746
1991	68,077,965	13,497,318	24.73	35,510,633	32,567,332
2001	80,176,197	12,098,232	17.77	41,465,985	38,710,212
2011	91,276,115	11,099,918	13.84	46,809,027	44,467,088

Source: A-2 Decadal Variation In Population Since 1901

Population Pyramid

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

West Bengal Population by Religion

Religion wise, Hinduism is the major religion in West Bengal with 70.5%, followed by Muslim with 27%. Christian and Buddhism with 0.72% and 0.31%. more than 1.1 million are others and not stated religion. The Muslim population of West Bengal is 24.6 Million is the second largest after Hindu religion of 64.3 Million.

Religion	Persons	Percentage	Males	Females
Hindu	64,385,546	70.54	33,046,557	31,338,989
Muslim	24,654,825	27.01	12,640,092	12,014,733
Christian	658,618	0.72	325,986	332,632
Sikh	63,523	0.07	34,168	29,355
Buddhist	282,898	0.31	141,388	141,510
Jain	60,141	0.07	30,718	29,423
Others	942,297	1.03	469,865	472,432
Not Stated	228,267	0.25	120,253	108,014

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

Ethnic groups

References: [1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/2979312

Tribes	Population as per Census 2011
All Scheduled Tribes	5,296,953
Asur	3,864
Baiga	13,423
Bedia, Bediya	88,772
Bhumij	376,296
Bhutia, Sherpa, Toto, Dukpa, Kagatay, Tibetan, Yolmo	66,627
Birhor	2,241
Birjia	1,123
Chakma	466
Chero	5,477
Chik Baraik	21,376
Garo	2,039
Gond	13,535
Gorait	2,498
Hajang	621
Ho	23,483
Karmali	2,466
Kharwar	20,270
Khond	660
Kisan	98,434
Kora	159,404
Korwa	2,912
Lepcha	33,962
Lodha, Kheria, Kharia	108,707
Lohara, Lohra	24,783
Magh	8,032
Mahali	81,594
Mahli	2,609
Mal Pahariya	44,538
Mech	41,242
Mru	197
Munda	366,386
Nagesia	16,378
Oraon	643,510
Parhaiya	921
Rabha	27,820
Santal	2,512,331
Sauria Paharia	3,480
Savar	40,374
Limbu (Subba)	46,847
Tamang	146,203
Generic Tribes etc.	241,052

Languages spoken in West Bengal

Bengali is the widely spoken language in West Bengal with 86% stated as their native language, followed by Hindi with 6.9%, Santali with 2.6%, Urdu with 1.8% and Nepali with 1.2%.

Languages	Persons	Percentage	Rural	Urban
Bengali	78,698,852	86.2206	56,188,667	22,510,185
Hindi	6,356,059	6.9636	2,027,869	4,328,190
Santali	2,429,073	2.6612	2,283,852	145,221
Urdu	1,663,519	1.8225	331,765	1,331,754
Nepali	1,155,375	1.2658	815,337	340,038
Kurukh/Oraon	171,909	0.1883	159,686	12,223
Odia	162,142	0.1776	35,836	126,306
Telugu	88,352	0.0968	3,926	84,426
Punjabi	61,080	0.0669	8,844	52,236
Munda	43,686	0.0479	40,879	2,807
Gujarati	41,371	0.0453	4,141	37,230
Koda/Kora	40,741	0.0446	36,753	3,988
Maithili	29,741	0.0326	8,544	21,197
Mundari	29,594	0.0324	28,934	660
Savara	24,915	0.0273	23,585	1,330
Tamil	15,930	0.0175	1,935	13,995
Marathi	14,815	0.0162	4,920	9,895
Rabha	14,387	0.0158	14,242	145
Malayalam	10,952	0.0120	1,699	9,253
Kisan	10,277	0.0113	10,271	6
Lepcha	8,637	0.0095	7,975	662
Tibetan	8,500	0.0093	2,490	6,010
Sindhi	7,828	0.0086	2,571	5,257
Assamese	7,342	0.0080	3,706	3,636
Bhumij	6,977	0.0076	6,907	70
Kharia	6,876	0.0075	6,408	468
HO	6,055	0.0066	5,204	851
Malto	5,057	0.0055	4,516	541
Bhotia	4,293	0.0047	1,873	2,420
Tamang	3,821	0.0042	2,514	1,307
Kannada	2,192	0.0024	904	1,288
Manipuri	2,010	0.0022	493	1,517
Korwa	2,009	0.0022	576	1,433

Source: 2011 Census: Language and Mother Tongue

Disability

Type of disability	Total Persons	Cultivators	Agriculture labor	HHI	Other workers
Total disabled population	685,516	98,499	195,878	48,320	342,819
In Seeing	161,730	24,281	44,868	11,123	81,458
In Hearing	126,567	18,070	35,599	9,319	63,579
In Speech	50,170	6,390	13,650	3,665	26,465
In Movement	107,728	15,397	29,714	7,881	54,736
Mental Retardation	30,446	4,503	9,940	2,058	13,945
Mental Illness	14,616	2,181	5,462	1,154	5,819
Any Other	161,028	22,466	44,882	10,448	83,232
Multiple disability	33,231	5,211	11,763	2,672	13,585

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

Population projection

According to UID, West Bengal population in 2022 is estimated to be 98.6 million (9.86 Crores), in 2021 is estimated to be 98.12 million (9.81 Crores), population in 2020 is estimated to be 99 million (9.9 Crores).

District wise population in West Bengal

As of 2017, West Bengal is divided into 23 districts. The North 24 paraganas is the largest district and Dakshin Dinajpur is the smallest by Population. Kolkata district is bordered by the North 24 Parganas district on the north and on the east, South 24 Parganas district on the south. Below is the West Bengal district wise population as per Census 2011 and 2020 projection.

District	Population(2020 est.)	Population(2011)	Percentage
Darjiling	2,105,378	1,846,823	2.02
Jalpaiguri	4,415,044	3,872,846	4.24
Koch Bihar	3,213,758	2,819,086	3.09
Uttar Dinajpur	3,428,133	3,007,134	3.29
Dakshin Dinajpur	1,910,955	1,676,276	1.84
Maldah	4,547,283	3,988,845	4.37
Murshidabad	8,098,340	7,103,807	7.78
Birbhum	3,992,741	3,502,404	3.84
Barddhaman	8,798,022	7,717,563	8.46
Nadia	5,891,064	5,167,600	5.66
North Twenty Four Parganas	11,411,150	10,009,781	10.97
Hugli	6,291,825	5,519,145	6.05
Bankura	4,100,208	3,596,674	3.94
Puruliya	3,340,331	2,930,115	3.21
Haora	5,529,033	4,850,029	5.31
Kolkata	5,126,231	4,496,694	4.93
South Twenty Four Parganas	9,304,636	8,161,961	8.94
Paschim Medinipur	6,741,341	5,913,457	6.48
Purba Medinipur	5,809,298	5,095,875	5.58