Kerala Population 2024

Kerala is the south-western state of India, bordered by Karnataka to the north, Tamil nadu to the east and south, and Lakshadweep to the west. Kerala population in 2024 is estimated to be 35.9 million (3.59 Crores), By Aug 2023, Kerala population is projected to be 3.57 Crores as per Unique Identification Aadhar India, updated 31, May 2023. As per NFHS 2019-2021 report, Total Fertility Rate of Kerala State is 1.8 children per women increased as compared to 1.6 in 2016. It is twenty-third largest state in India by area of 38,863 sq km. 'Keralam' is the the local slang of Kerala, Many believes 'Kera' means coconut and 'alam' means land, meaning 'Land of Coconuts'. Kerala is green everywhere and most popular for its tourism due to backwaters, lakes, mountain ranges, waterfalls and ferry rides. Kerala state has highest literacy rate in India with 94% compared to the national average of 74%. Kerala's sex ratio of 1084 females to 1000 males, is higher than that of the rest of India. As per Niti Aayog 2016 report, Total Fertility Rate is 1.8.

Source Image: Keraliates travelling in the ferry, backwaters of Kerala

People of Kerala are called 'Keraliates' or 'Malayali', and Malayalam is the native language spoken throughout the state.

The first recorded census was carried out by British in 1901, 6.3 million registered. In 1951 the sixth census was conducted by Independent India, the population is doubled in the span of 50 years from 1901 to 1951, 13.5 million. By 2001 the Kerala state population is 31.8 million, growth rate is 2.3 times for the period of 50 years. In 2011 census the population was 33.4 million with a increase of 4.91% compared to the last census in 2001. By 2021 it is estimated that the population will be 35.8 million with a growth rate of 7.2%.

Census year	Persons	Absolute	Percentage	Males	Females
1901	6,396,262	-	-	3,191,466	3,204,796
1911	7,147,673	751,411	11.75	3,559,425	3,588,248
1921	7,802,127	654,454	9.16	3,879,458	3,922,669
1931	9,507,050	1,704,923	21.85	4,702,951	4,804,099
1941	11,031,541	1,524,491	16.04	5,443,296	5,588,245
1951	13,549,118	2,517,577	22.82	6,681,901	6,867,217
1961	16,903,715	3,354,597	24.76	8,361,927	8,541,788
1971	21,347,375	4,443,660	26.29	10,587,851	10,759,524
1981	25,453,680	4,106,305	19.24	12,527,767	12,925,913
1991	29,098,518	3,644,838	14.32	14,288,995	14,809,523
2001	31,841,374	2,742,856	9.43	15,468,614	16,372,760
2011	33,406,061	1,564,687	4.91	16,027,412	17,378,649

Source: A-2 Decadal Variation In Population Since 1901

Population Pyramid

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

Kerala Population by Religion

The major religions of Kerala are Hindu, Islam, Christian. As per 2011 census Kerala population religion wise, Hinduism is with 54.7%, followed by Muslim with 26.5% and Christianity with 18.3%. Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains are below 5000 each and 95,773 people has not stated their religion or have no religious affiliation. The total muslim population 8.8 Million is the second largest after Hindu population of 18.2 million, followed by Christian accounts for 6.1 million, the third largest religious community.

Religion	Persons	Percentage	Males	Females
Hindu	18,282,492	54.73	8,803,455	9,479,037
Muslim	8,873,472	26.56	4,176,255	4,697,217
Christian	6,141,269	18.38	2,993,781	3,147,488
Sikh	3,814	0.01	2,173	1,641
Buddhist	4,752	0.01	2,442	2,310
Jain	4,489	0.01	2,225	2,264
Others	7,618	0.02	4,114	3,504
Not Stated	88,155	0.26	42,967	45,188

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

Ethnic groups of Kerala

Tribes	Population as per Census 2011
All Scheduled Tribes	484,839
Adiyan	11,526
Arandan, Aranadan	283
Eravallan	4,797
Hill Pulaya, Mala Pulayan, Kurumba Pulayan, Karavazhi Pulayan, Pamba Pulayan	2,959
Irular, Irulan	23,721
Kadar, Wayanad Kadar	2,949
Kanikaran, Kanikkar	21,251
Kattunayakan	18,199
Kochuvelan	38
Koraga	1,582
Kudiya, Melakudi	785
Kurichchan, Kurichiyan	35,171
Kurumans, Mullu Kuruman, Mulla Kuruman, Mala Kuruman	24,505
Kurumbas, Kurumbar, Kurumban	2,586
Maha Malasar	154
Malai Arayan, Mala Arayan	33,216
Malai Pandaram	2,422
Malai Vedan, Malavedan	8,149
Malakkuravan	175
Malasar	3,195
Malayan, Nattu Malayan, Konga Malayan (excluding the areas comprising the Kasargode, Connanore, Wayanad and Kozhikode districts)	5,917
Malayarayar	1,568
Mannan (to be spelt in Malayalam script in parenthesis)	9,780
Muthuvan, Mudugar, Muduvan	23,746
Palleyan, Palliyan, Palliyar, Paliyan	1,464
Paniyan	88,450
Ulladan, Ullatan	16,230
Uraly	11,179
Mala Vettuvan (in Kasargode and Kannur districts)	17,869
Ten Kurumban, Jenu Kurumban	25
Thachanadan, Thachanadan Moopan	1,745
Cholanaickan	124
Mavilan	30,867
Karimpalan	14,098
Vetta Kuruman	739
Mala Panickar	1,023
Generic Tribes etc.	62,352

Languages spoken in Kerala

Malayalam is the official language of Kerala and most widely spoken through out the state with 97%. Tamil speakers are 1.5% and other languages like Tulu, Konkani, Hindi are less than 1%.

Languages	Persons	Percentage	Rural	Urban
Malayalam	32,413,213	97.0279	16,867,245	15,545,968
Tamil	502,516	1.5043	346,256	156,260
Tulu	124,266	0.3720	91,046	33,220
Kannada	86,995	0.2604	58,195	28,800
Konkani	69,449	0.2079	16,312	53,137
Hindi	51,928	0.1554	12,428	39,500
Telugu	35,380	0.1059	17,678	17,702
Marathi	31,642	0.0947	23,942	7,700
Bengali	29,061	0.0870	12,285	16,776
Urdu	13,122	0.0393	4,002	9,120
Odia	10,958	0.0328	4,123	6,835
Assamese	5,796	0.0174	3,053	2,743
Gujarati	4,710	0.0141	352	4,358
Nepali	3,665	0.0110	1,026	2,639
Bhili	3,458	0.0104	3,187	271

Source: 2011 Census: Language and Mother Tongue

Disability

Below is the disbale population of Kerala state as per table below.

Type of disability	Total Persons	Cultivators	Agriculture labor	HHI	Other workers
Total disabled population	179,694	12,517	23,281	5,556	138,340
In Seeing	31,467	2,817	4,862	994	22,794
In Hearing	30,572	2,370	4,609	1,112	22,481
In Speech	12,793	787	1,809	366	9,831
In Movement	48,863	2,688	4,176	1,325	40,674
Mental Retardation	4,548	373	693	126	3,356
Mental Illness	9,429	656	1,570	294	6,909
Any Other	29,102	1,899	3,728	914	22,561
Multiple disability	12,920	927	1,834	425	9,734

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

Kerala Population projection

Kerala population in 2022 is estimated to be 35.6 million (3.56 Crores), population in 2021 is estimated to be 35.4 million (3.54 Crores) and in 2020 is estimated to be 36.4 million (3.6 Crores), and population in 2023 is estimated to be 35.8 million.

District wise population in Kerala

Below is the Kerala district wise population as per Census 2011 and 2020 projection. Kerala is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Trivandrum also called Thiruvananthapuram, density is 4500 people per sq km. Palakkad is the largest district with 4480 sq km. Alappuzha is the smallest district with 1414 sq km. In Census 2011, Kottayam district has registered the highest literacy rate of 97.17% compared to Kerala's overall 94%.

District	Population(2020 est.)	Population(2011)	Percentage
Kasaragod	1,490,408	1,307,375	3.91
Kannur	2,876,223	2,523,003	7.55
Wayanad	931,859	817,420	2.45
Kozhikode	3,518,374	3,086,293	9.24
Malappuram	4,688,729	4,112,920	12.31
Palakkad	3,203,325	2,809,934	8.41
Thrissur	3,558,168	3,121,200	9.34
Ernakulam	3,741,922	3,282,388	9.83
Idukki	1,264,230	1,108,974	3.32
Kottayam	2,250,988	1,974,551	5.91
Alappuzha	2,425,679	2,127,789	6.37
Pathanamthitta	1,365,050	1,197,412	3.58
Kollam	3,004,328	2,635,375	7.89
Thiruvananthapuram	3,763,627	3,301,427	9.88