Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general Prime minister: Danny Philip
Population
1,205,073,612
584,578
Life Expectancy
67.140 years
74.420 years
Capital City
New Delhi
Largest city
Mumbai (population: 12,691,800)
Honiara (population: 56,298)
Human Development Index
0.609
0.591
GDP per capita
$3,700 US
Literacy Rate
61%
%
Corruption Perception Index
3.4
2.9
Percentage of Women in Parliament
9.2%
0%
Wealthiest Citizens
Mukesh Ambani ($19.5bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
9.800%
Death Penalty
Legal
Abolished
Political System
federal republic
parliamentary democracy
Independence date
15 August 1947 (from UK)
Religions
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)
Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South Seas Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church 10.3%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other 2.4%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)
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)
Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua franca; English (official; but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population); 120 indigenous languages
