Census puts Nepal's population at 26.6 million

GAURAV BHATTARAI

KATHMANDU: The Central Bureau of Statistics, on Monday, released the final result of the 11th National Census and said that Nepal's population stands at 26,494,505 over the past 10 years.

In the report of National Population and Housing Census 2011 published by the CBS, the population of the country has grown to 1.35%,since the last census.

Report says the male population stands at 12,849,041 while population of female is 13,645,463.

Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai had made public the 2011 census report at a programme in Singha Durbar.

The sex ratio is 94.16 compared to 99.8 of 2001 census.

Terai constitutes of 50.27 percent (13,318,705) of the total population.Similarly, hilly and mountain areas constitute 43 percent (11,394,007) and 6.73 percent (1,781,792) respectively.

The census data also show that more than half of the population, about 55 per cent, is below 25 years of age.

National Census Report: Facts and figures

Population: 26,494,505

• Households: 5,427,30

• Average household size: 4.88

• Sex ratio (number of males per 100 females): 94

• Urban population: 17.7 per cent



• Highest population: Kathmandu (1,744,240)

• Lowest population: Manang (6,538)

No of castes/ethnic groups: 125

• Chhetri: 16.6 per cent (4,398,053)

• Brahman-Hill: 12.2 per cent (3,226,903)

• Magar: 7.1 per cent (1,887,733)

• Tharu: 6.6 per cent (1,737,470)

• Tamang: 5.8 per cent (1,539,830)

• Newar: 5 per cent (1,321,933)

• Kami: 4.8 per cent (1,258,554)

• Musalman: 4.4 per cent (1,164,255)

• Yadav: 4 per cent ( 1,054,458)

• Rai: 2.3 per cent (620,004)

Number of religions followed: 10

• Hinduism: 81.3 per cent (21,551,492)

• Buddhism: 9 per cent (2,396,099)

• Islam: 4.4 per cent (1,162,370)

• Kirat: 3.1 per cent (807,169)

• Christianity : 1.4 per cent (375,699)

• Prakriti: 0.5 per cent (121,982)

• Bon: Followed by 13,006 people

• Jainism: Followed by 3,214 people

• Bahai: Followed by 1,283 people

• Sikhism: Followed by 609 people

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics had published the preliminary report of National Population and Housing Census on September 2011 according to which the country’s population was around at 26,620,809, with an annual average growth of 1.4 per cent.

The census, conducted from June 17-June 27, had recorded 12,927,431 (48.56 per cent) males and 13,693,378 (51.44 per cent) females.

The sex ratio was 94.14 (males per hundred females) compared to 99.8 of census 2001.

Similarly, national average household size had decreased from 5.44 to 4.70.

Population density of the country was 181 per square km compared to 157 in 2001, with highest (4,408) in Kathmandu and lowest in Manang.