Geography of India

Location Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Geographic coordinates 20 00 N, 77 00 E

Map references Asia

Area total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km
water: 314,400 sq km

Area - comparative slightly more than one-third the size of the US

Land boundaries total:14,103 km
border countries:Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463 km, China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km

Coastline 7,000 km

Maritime claims contiguous zone:24 nm

continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north

Terrain upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in north

Elevation extremes lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m

highest point: Kanchenjunga 8,598 m

Natural resources coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

Land use arable land: 56%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 4%
forests and woodland: 23%
other: 16% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land 480,000 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards droughts, flash floods, severe thunderstorms common; earthquakes

Environment - current issues deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing population is overstraining natural resources

Environment - international agreements
party to:Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified:none of the selected agreements

Geography - note dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean trade routes

Population 1,014,003,817 (July 2000 est.)

Age structure 0-14 years:34% (male 175,228,164; female 165,190,951)
15-64 years:62% (male 324,699,562; female 301,821,383)
65 years and over:4% (male 23,925,371; female 23,138,386) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate 1.58% (2000 est.)

Birth rate 24.79 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate 8.88 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate -0.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio at birth:1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years:1.08 male(s)/female
65 years and over:1.03 male(s)/female
total population:1.07 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate 64.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth total population:62.5 years
male:61.89 years
female:63.13 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate 3.11 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality noun:Indian(s)
adjective:Indian

Ethnic groups Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%

Religions Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%

Languages English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani (a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India)
note:24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible

Literacy definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 52%
male: 65.5%
female: 37.7% (1995 est.)

 

Bookmark

Make homepage

Print this Page

Mail this page