As per Government of India census data of 2011, the total number of Urdu speakers in the Republic of India were 62,772,631.SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH - 2001 According to the census guidelines, "Urdu" does not broadly refer to the Hindustani language, but the literary-register of the macrolanguage, hence accounting Hindi as a separate language.

Urdu is officially recognised in India and has official status in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to which the language has remained deeply attached through its medieval history of Muslim sultanates and empires and the Indian states and union territories of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir.

Regional distribution Following is a list of States and Union Territories of India by speakers of Urdu census data with estimated 2001 speakers.

Administrative divisionsUrdu speakersTotalMaleFemale States Uttar Pradesh 38,272,080 20,947,596 19,324,484 Bihar 17,757,548 8,891,011 8,566,537 Maharashtra 6,895,501 3,247,547 3,247,954 Telangana & Andhra Pradesh 5,539,910 3,430,719 2,109,191 Jharkhand 3,324,411 2,206,458 1,117,953 Madhya Pradesh 3,186,364 2,180,019 1,006,345 Karnataka 2,674,333 1,373,117 1,301,216 West Bengal 1,653,739 914,087 739,652 Rajasthan 1,462,983 781,000 681,002 Gujarat 1,350,630 687,723 663,907 Odisha 899,299 411,692 288,817 Tamil Nadu 511,299 273,914 232,385 Uttarakhand 497,081 265,152 231,929 Haryana 260,687 140,038 120,649 Chhattisgarh 88,008 46,670 41,338 Goa 54,163 28,306 25,857 Punjab 27,660 16,971 10,689 Kerala 51,492 26,703 25,789 Himachal Pradesh 4,787 3,146 1,641 Assam 4,715 2,821 1,894 Sikkim 2,930 2,118 812 Meghalaya 2,531 1,509 1,022 Arunachal Pradesh 1,258 883 375 Manipur 483 470 13 Tripura 313 253 60 Mizoram 98 84 14 Nagaland 759 562 197 Union territories Delhi 8,575,033 4,351,545 4,223,488 Jammu & Kashmir 13,251 8,293 4,958 Chandigarh 7,254 4,428 2,826 Puducherry 7,092 3,450 3,642 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1,615 885 730 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 994 590 404 Daman & Diu 574 388 186 Lakshadweep 26 14 12 India 85,061,078 46,837,143 45,698,968

For census data of 1991:GOI census 1991: DISTRIBUTION OF 10,000 PERSONS BY LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES - 1991

Speaker strength Following is speaker's strength data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:GOI census 2001: COMPARATIVE SPEAKERS' STRENGTH OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES -1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001

Language Persons who returned the language as their mother tongue Percentage to total population 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 Urdu 28,620,895 34,941,435 43,406,932 51,536,111 50,772,631 5.22 5.25 5.18 5.01 4.19

Ranking Following is ranking data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:GOI census 2001: COMPARATIVE RANKING OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH-1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001 Urdu: its rank and percentage to total population 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 Rank % Rank % Rank % Rank % Rank % 6 5.22 5 5.25 6 5.18** 6 5.01 7 4.19

"**" Census was not conducted in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir

See also States of India by urban population States of India by size of economy Muslims of Uttar Pradesh

References

External links

GOI census 2001: Population by religious communities