As per Government of India census data of 2011, the total number of Urdu speakers in the Republic of India were 62,772,631.[1] [2] According to the census guidelines, "Urdu" does not broadly refer to the Hindostani language, but the literary-register of the macrolanguage, hence accounting Hindi as a separate language.
Urdu is officially recognised in India and has official status in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to which the language has remained deeply attached through its medieval history of Muslim sultanates and empires and the Indian states and union territories of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,[3] Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir.
Following is a list of States and Union Territories of India by speakers of Urdu census data with estimated 2001 speakers.[4]
| Administrative divisions | Urdu speakers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Male | Female | ||
| States | ||||
| 38,272,080 | 20,947,596 | 19,324,484 | ||
| 17,757,548 | 8,891,011 | 8,566,537 | ||
| 6,895,501 | 3,247,547 | 3,247,954 | ||
| 5,539,910 | 3,430,719 | 2,109,191 | ||
| 3,324,411 | 2,206,458 | 1,117,953 | ||
| 3,186,364 | 2,180,019 | 1,006,345 | ||
| 2,674,333 | 1,373,117 | 1,301,216 | ||
| 1,653,739 | 914,087 | 739,652 | ||
| 1,462,983 | 781,000 | 681,002 | ||
| 1,350,630 | 687,723 | 663,907 | ||
| 899,299 | 411,692 | 288,817 | ||
| 511,299 | 273,914 | 232,385 | ||
| 497,081 | 265,152 | 231,929 | ||
| 260,687 | 140,038 | 120,649 | ||
| 88,008 | 46,670 | 41,338 | ||
| 54,163 | 28,306 | 25,857 | ||
| 27,660 | 16,971 | 10,689 | ||
| 51,492 | 26,703 | 25,789 | ||
| 4,787 | 3,146 | 1,641 | ||
| 4,715 | 2,821 | 1,894 | ||
| 2,930 | 2,118 | 812 | ||
| 2,531 | 1,509 | 1,022 | ||
| 1,258 | 883 | 375 | ||
| 483 | 470 | 13 | ||
| 313 | 253 | 60 | ||
| 98 | 84 | 14 | ||
| 759 | 562 | 197 | ||
| Union territories | ||||
| 8,575,033 | 4,351,545 | 4,223,488 | ||
| 13,251 | 8,293 | 4,958 | ||
| 7,254 | 4,428 | 2,826 | ||
| 7,092 | 3,450 | 3,642 | ||
| 1,615 | 885 | 730 | ||
| 994 | 590 | 404 | ||
| 574 | 388 | 186 | ||
| 26 | 14 | 12 | ||
| India | 85,061,078 | 46,837,143 | 45,698,968 | |
For census data of 1991:GOI census 1991: DISTRIBUTION OF 10,000 PERSONS BY LANGUAGE - INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES - 1991
Following is speaker's strength data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:[5] [6]
| Language | Persons who returned the language as their mother tongue[7] | Percentage to total population | |||||||||
| 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 | ||
| Urdu | 28,620,895 | 34,941,435 | 43,406,932 | 51,536,111 | 50,772,631 | 5.22 | 5.25 | 5.18 | 5.01 | 4.19 | |
Following is ranking data of Urdu language for decades of 1971, 1981, 1991 & 2001:[8]
| Urdu: its rank and percentage to total population | ||||||||||
| 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 | ||||||
| Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | % | |
| 6 | 5.22 | 5 | 5.25 | 6 | 5.18** | 6 | 5.01 | 7 | 4.19 | |
"**" Census was not conducted in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir