4.1. Distribution and Density of Population

Patterns of population distribution and density help us to understand the demographic characteristics of any area. The term ‘Population Distribution’ refers to the way people are spaced over the earth’s surface. Broadly, 90 per cent of the world population lives in about 10 per cent of its land area. India’s population as on March 2011 stood at 1,210 million, which account for approx. 17% of the world’s population. These 1.21 billion people are unevenly distributed over our country’s vast area of 3.28 million square km, which accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s area.