King: Albert II Prime Minister-designate: Elio di Rupo
Population
1,205,073,612
10,438,353
Life Expectancy
67.140 years
79.650 years
Capital City
New Delhi
Brussels
Largest city
Mumbai (population: 12,691,800)
Brussels (population: 1,019,020)
Human Development Index
0.609
0.948
GDP per capita
$3,700 US
$38,200 US
Literacy Rate
61%
99%
Corruption Perception Index
3.4
7.3
Percentage of Women in Parliament
9.2%
36.2%
Wealthiest Citizens
Mukesh Ambani ($19.5bn US)
Albert Frere ($2.4bn US)
Unemployment Rate
9.800%
7.700%
Death Penalty
Legal
Abolished
Political System
federal republic
federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy
Independence date
15 August 1947 (from UK)
4 October 1830 (a provisional government declared independence from the Netherlands); 21 July 1831 (King LEOPOLD I ascended to the throne)
Religions
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)
Roman Catholic 75%, other (includes Protestant) 25%
Languages
Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9% note: English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 41% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language (2001 census)
Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, German (official) less than 1%, legally bilingual (Dutch and French)
