BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Census confirms one billion Indians

The provisional results of India's latest official census confirm the country is now the world's second largest after China.

The figures show an increase of 180 million people over the past decade, although the rate of growth went down slightly.

The census shows two out of three Indians can now read and write, with the number of illiterates falling for the first time since independence half a century ago.

Full results awaited

The census was carried out over three weeks earlier this year in what the Indian Government called one of the biggest administrative exercises in the world.

But the full results - which are expected to provide information about how India's economic reforms have affected the population - are not likely to be available for nearly two years.

The exercise involved about two million census workers, who visited homes in more than 5,000 towns and cities and more than 600,000 villages.

There were a number of changes to this year's census. Giving details of their occupation, respondents were this time able to answer: "Software engineer".

Census officials are confident the exercise will be more than a mere head count and give a true demographic picture of the country.