ABSTRACT
The total population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, according to the census of March 2001, was 356,265. This was an increase of over one-quarter on the 1991 census result (280,661) and was more than three times the 1971 figure (115,133). The rate of natural growth remains slightly above the national average, but showed some decline in the late 1990s. The population density of the territory in 2001, therefore, was 43.2 per sq mile, the lowest of any union territory; in all India, only the state of Mizoram had a lower population density. Most of the population are now of Indian, Burmese or Malay descent, more recently supplemented by refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar, Indian émigrés from Guyana and Tamils from Sri Lanka. As a result, most of the population are Hindu (67.5% at the 1991 census), with a fairly large Christian community (24.0%) and some Muslims (7.6%). English is used, particularly in government, but the most-widely spoken languages are Bengali (23.1% in 1991), then Tamil (19.1%), Hindi (17.6%), Telugu and Malayalam.
