HOW FAST IS INDIA GROWING?

India with about 2.4% of the land area in the world contains about 16% of the world population.

*The birth rate in India (31 per thousand people) is greater than that of China (20 per thousand people).  If this trend continues, India will beat up China by 2025 A.D., making India the most populous nation in the world.  In 2025 A.D., India will have 1591 million people and China 1554 million people.

*Only five countries in the world - China, USA, Brazil, Indonesia, and United USSR have more population than Uttar Pradesh (145 million), which is one of the 28 states in India.

*The total population of the South India state of Tamil Nadu was 55.6 million as 1991. 

*About 4,478,000 people die every year in Tamil Nadu, or to put it another way, 1,227 people pass every day into eternity without knowing Christ.  Every year the total population of Australia is added to the population of India.  More people live in India than all the people living in North America, South America, and Australia put together.

*The death rate in India is 8.39 million per year.  This means that 23,000 people everyday, 958 people every hour, or 16 people every minute, pass into a Christ less eternity.  Are we "moved with compassion for them because they are weary and scattered" like Jesus Chris said in Matthew 9:26.

*In India there are about 1,942 language groups without God's written Word.  There are also 1,658 different mother tongues and 16 major languages - classified as official languages, spoken by about 90% of the India population.

*In India there are 28 states, 7 Union territories.

*Now about 65% of the Indian people (550 million) live in the villages, and about 300 million live in cities.  Here are some facts about the exploding cities. 

*In India there were 12 cities with more than 1,000,000 people in 1981, which increased to 23 cities in 1991.

*The cities with more than 100,000 populations in 1981 were 218, which increased to 816 cities in 1991.

*The major cities like Mumbai (12.5 million), Kolkatta (10.836 million), Delhi (8.38 million), Madras (5.36 million), Hyderabad (4.27 million), and Bangalore (5.27 million) contains more people than all the people living in the state Kerala and two thirds of the people living in the Tamil Nadu state.

*By 2000 A.D. more than half of the population of the world will live in cities, and nearly 40% of our urban population will live in slums.  It was reported in Bangalore, which is also called the garden city of India, that there were 430 slums with 400,000 slum dwellers in 1989.

*Every year about 500,000 people move to Mumbai.  There are 100,000 pavement people, 150,000 prostitutes, and 70,000 beggars in Mumbai alone. 

*Mumbai will have 16 million people in 2000 A.D. with more than 60% of the people living in the slums.

*Very little work is carried out amount the city dwellers.  The city dwellers have lost the sense of belonging that they enjoyed in villages, and they feel lonely due to the loss of inter-personal relationships.