Bihar Population 2025

Bihar is the eastern state of India, bordered by Nepal in the North, Jharkhand in the south, Uttar Pradesh in the west and Meghalaya on the east. Its third largest state by population after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with an sex ratio of 918. Bihar population in 2025 is estimated to be 128.6 million (12.86 Crores), Unique Identification Aadhar India, updated 31, Oct 2024. As per NFHS 2019-2021 report, Total Fertility Rate of Bihar State is 3 children per women compared to 3.4 in 2016, which is higher than India's TFR of 2.

Image Source: Bihari people spiritual gathering at Satsang, Bihar

The first census was recorded in Bihar state at the time of British India rule in 1901 was 21.24 million people. By 1951 the population raised to 29 million in the first ever census conducted by Independent India and 7.76 million was increased in 50 years in the state of Bihar mostly in the British colonial rule. By the next 50 years the Bihari population was almost tripled taking to 82 million as per the census conducted in the year of 2001. In the last census of 2011 the population is recorded as 104 million people increasing at growth rate of 25% from the last census.

Census year	Persons	Absolute	Percentage	Males	Females
1901	21,243,632	-	-	10,308,300	10,935,332
1911	21,567,159	323,527	1.52	10,516,050	11,051,109
1921	21,358,905	-208,254	-0.97	10,573,105	10,785,800
1931	23,438,371	2,079,466	9.74	11,748,053	11,690,318
1941	26,302,771	2,864,400	12.22	13,138,759	13,164,012
1951	29,085,017	2,782,246	10.58	14,545,921	14,539,096
1961	34,840,968	5,755,951	19.79	17,375,442	17,465,526
1971	42,126,236	7,285,268	20.91	21,530,724	20,595,512
1981	52,302,665	10,176,429	24.16	26,850,116	25,452,549
1991	64,530,554	12,227,889	23.38	33,838,238	30,692,316
2001	82,998,509	18,467,955	28.62	43,243,795	39,754,714
2011	104,099,452	21,100,943	25.42	54,278,157	49,821,295

Source: A-2 Decadal Variation In Population Since 1901

Population Pyramid

Source: 2011 Census: Population In Five Year Age-Group

Bihar Population by Religion

Bihar population religion wise, Hindu is the major religion in the Bihar state with 82.6%, for the thousands of years Hindu is the only religion followed in Bihari region till the muslim rulers invaded bihar in 12th cenutury, as per 2011 census it accounts for 16.87% of Muslim population, and other religions like Buddhism, Christian, Sikh and Jain accounts for less than 1%. Buddhism is one of the world's largest religion with over 500 million followers, Buddhism originated in Bihar state of Gaya, founded in 5th to 6th century BCE by Gautama Buddha.

Religion	Persons	Percentage	Males	Females
Hindu	86,078,686	82.69	44,994,505	41,084,181
Muslim	17,557,809	16.87	9,044,086	8,513,723
Christian	129,247	0.12	66,115	63,132
Sikh	23,779	0.02	12,457	11,322
Buddhist	25,453	0.02	13,490	11,963
Jain	18,914	0.02	9,743	9,171
Others	13,437	0.01	6,833	6,604
Not Stated	252,127	0.24	130,928	121,199

Source: Details of Religion In Main Table C-1- 2011 (India & States/UTs)

Ethnic groups of Bihar

Population according to castes in Bihar are 5.7% are Brahmins, 4.7% are Bhumihar, 5.2% are Rajputs, 14.4% are Yadav, 4% are Kurmi, 8% are Kushwaha, 17% are Muslims, 2% are Kayastha, 6% are Baniya, 3% are Teli, 2% are Mushahar and 4% are Dusadh.

Tribes	Population as per Census 2011
All Scheduled Tribes	1,336,573
Asur, Agaria	4,129
Baiga	543
Banjara	2,709
Bathudi	18
Bedia	1,777
Binjhia	15
Birhor	377
Birjia	208
Chero	12,741
Chik Baraik	2,135
Gond	256,738
Gorait	836
Ho	715
Karmali	277
Kharia, Dhelki Kharia, Dudh Kharia, Hill Kharia	11,569
Kharwar	125,811
Khond	134
Kisan, Nagesia	28,931
Kora, Mudi-kora	16,580
Korwa	452
Lohara, Lohra	7,718
Mahli	4,132
Mal Paharia, Kumarbhag Paharia	2,225
Munda, Patar	14,028
Oraon, Dhangar (Oraon)	144,472
Parhaiya	647
Santal	406,076
Sauria Paharia	1,932
Savar	80
Kawar	868
Kol	10,735
Tharu	159,939
Generic Tribes etc.	117,026

Languages spoken in Bihar

Hindi is widely spoken through out Bihar state with 77% of population, followed by Maithili with 12.54% and Urdu with 8.4%. Hindi is the official and main language that every Bihari speaks even if they are Maithili and Urdu speakers. Bhojpuri, Angika and Magahi are widely spoken in some districts of Bihar and considered one of the Hindi dialects. The Other languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati are the migrated people representing less than 1% each.

Languages	Persons	Percentage	Rural	Urban
Hindi	80,698,466	77.5205	71,381,862	9,316,604
Maithili	13,063,042	12.5486	12,395,984	667,058
Urdu	8,770,002	8.4246	7,122,078	1,647,924
Bengali	810,771	0.7788	734,058	76,713
Santali	458,949	0.4409	447,771	11,178
Kurukh/Oraon	87,995	0.0845	77,894	10,101
Malto	75,986	0.0730	75,900	86
Punjabi	10,467	0.0101	2,933	7,534
Gujarati	8,297	0.0080	6,711	1,586
Nepali	5,727	0.0055	3,840	1,887
Sanskrit	3,388	0.0033	3,041	347
Odia	3,188	0.0031	2,114	1,074
Sindhi	2,227	0.0021	1,041	1,186
Assamese	2,087	0.0020	1,447	640

Source: 2011 Census: Language and Mother Tongue

Disability

Below is the disable people stastistics of Bihar:

Type of disability	Total Persons	Cultivators	Agriculture labor	HHI	Other workers
Total disabled population	865,347	170,216	449,657	40,226	205,248
In Seeing	200,995	41,675	104,650	8,332	46,338
In Hearing	221,561	42,979	113,751	11,403	53,428
In Speech	64,974	13,268	33,557	3,301	14,848
In Movement	140,722	29,078	69,681	5,934	36,029
Mental Retardation	26,356	5,409	14,712	1,078	5,157
Mental Illness	10,006	2,113	5,529	401	1,963
Any Other	175,382	30,611	94,265	8,464	42,042
Multiple disability	25,351	5,083	13,512	1,313	5,443

Source: 2011 Census: Distribution of Disabled(India & States/UTs)

Bihar Population projection

According to UID, Bihar population in 2022 is estimated to be 125.1 million, population in 2020 is estimated to be 124 million, and in 2021 is estimated to be 127 million (12.7 Crores), and in 2023 is estimated to be 126.8 million.

District wise population in Bihar

Bihar State has currently 38 districts, The average population of the districts is 27,31,701, most populous district is Patna with 6,539,081 and least populous is Sheikhpura with 712,703. Highest literacy rate is Rohtas with 75.59% and lowest literacy rate being Purnia, 52.49%. Bihar district wise population as per Census 2011 and 2020 projection.

District	Population(2020 est.)	Population(2011)	Percentage
Pashchim Champaran	4,485,948	3,935,042	3.78
Purba Champaran	5,813,283	5,099,371	4.90
Sheohar	748,120	656,246	0.63
Sitamarhi	3,902,874	3,423,574	3.29
Madhubani	5,115,612	4,487,379	4.31
Supaul	2,541,147	2,229,076	2.14
Araria	3,205,189	2,811,569	2.70
Kishanganj	1,927,056	1,690,400	1.62
Purnia	3,721,666	3,264,619	3.14
Katihar	3,500,973	3,071,029	2.95
Madhepura	2,282,009	2,001,762	1.92
Saharsa	2,166,754	1,900,661	1.83
Darbhanga	4,488,619	3,937,385	3.78
Muzaffarpur	5,473,211	4,801,062	4.61
Gopalganj	2,920,694	2,562,012	2.46
Siwan	3,796,729	3,330,464	3.20
Saran	4,505,123	3,951,862	3.80
Vaishali	3,984,324	3,495,021	3.36
Samastipur	4,858,185	4,261,566	4.09
Begusarai	3,386,417	2,970,541	2.85
Khagaria	1,900,250	1,666,886	1.60
Bhagalpur	3,463,053	3,037,766	2.92
Banka	2,319,630	2,034,763	1.95
Munger	1,559,252	1,367,765	1.31
Lakhisarai	1,141,040	1,000,912	0.96
Sheikhpura	725,430	636,342	0.61
Nalanda	3,280,524	2,877,653	2.76
Patna	6,655,850	5,838,465	5.61
Bhojpur	3,110,384	2,728,407	2.62
Buxar	1,945,241	1,706,352	1.64
Kaimur (Bhabua)	1,854,078	1,626,384	1.56
Rohtas	3,374,307	2,959,918	2.84
Aurangabad	2,895,683	2,540,073	2.44
Gaya	5,006,217	4,391,418	4.22
Nawada	2,529,826	2,219,146	2.13
Jamui	2,006,862	1,760,405	1.69
Jehanabad	1,282,857	1,125,313	1.08
Arwal	798,961	700,843	0.67