(De)Constructing India's Census

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Imagine India as just 100 people: how many would own a phone, have electricity, or live in a city? This thought experiment uncovers surprising truths about inequality and everyday life. Inspired by global data visualisations, it’s a snapshot of India’s diverse realities, reminding us that numbers tell stories too. As the next Census approaches, what shifts will the new decade reveal?

Source: The Wire

As humans, we find it difficult to intuitively grasp very large numbers. For example, there are one million seconds in roughly 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds in roughly 31 years, and 1 trillion seconds in 31,000 years!

As we come up to the census year 2021, we looked at India’s census numbers from 2011, which are used to make policy decisions. We imagined that if India were only 100 people, how would we represent India’s people? We bring to you insights, such as 35 of India’s people having basic mobile phones, while 39 do not even have a phone; or that 33 persons out of 100 still do not have access to electricity. While these are really macro-level numbers oversimplifying complex assumptions, they help us understand the magnitude of inequality and the need for further inquiry.

The ‘India as 100 infographics’ is inspired by different initiatives that have condensed world data into consumable information. There are some caveats though; at the macro-level, some of these numbers can be misleading. As per the 2011 Census, 31 of 100 persons live in cities, but that is based on the definition of urban as defined for the census. It may not be what one may conventionally refer to as a city in common parlance.

Yet, these are worth looking at as we come up to 2021 and see how much change has occurred in the decade in terms of the demographics of the country.

Photo by Shashank Hudkar on Unsplash