Composition of Population: Sex, Caste and Religion

Composition of Population

The description of the population according to the different characteristics such as caste, religion, sex, language, occupation, etc is called composition of the population. It is the structure of the population. Caste, religion, etc reflects the social characteristics, age and sex reflect the demographic characteristics and occupation denote the economic characteristics. It is very important for the study of population. It provides detail information about the individual people. It helps to know about the total number pf people of a particular area belonging to different caste, religion, language, occupation, and sex. It helps the government to plan and carry out developmental activities. On the basis of population composition, the population can be classified into the following groups,

Population Composition by Sex

The arrangement of the population on the basis of sex is called population composition by sex. It is the structure of population on the basis of sex. It can also be defined as the distribution of population on the basis of sex that is male and female. The table given below shows the population composition by sex of Nepal in different census,

The above table shows the population composition by sex in 2001 and 2011 AD. Here, in both census, the population of the female is more than the population of male. The total percentage of female form the total population in 2001 AD is 50.1 and male is 49.9. Similarly, the population percentage of male and female in 2011 AD is 51.5 and 48.5 respectively. While studying the population composition by sex, we should not forget the contribution of sex ratio. The sex ratio can be calculated by the given formula,

Sex Ratio = \(\frac{M}{F}\) \(\times\) 100

Where,
M: Total number of male population
F: Total number of female population

The sex ratio of various censuses has been shown in the following table:

Sex ratio is the total number of male population per hundred female population. From the above table, we can observe that the sex ratio is high in 1981 AD. The sex ratio is observed low in 1991, 2001 and 2011 AD.

Population Composition by Castes/Ethnicity

There are various castes in Nepal. Nepali is a country of multicultural and multi- ethnicity. Our community and the country is made of various castes and ethnic groups. According to our great King Prithivi Narayan Shah, 'Nepal is a garden of 4 castes and 36 sub- castes'. Some of the examples of the caste of Nepal are Brahmin, Chhetri, Thakuri, Badi, Gaine. Hilly region and mountain region supports the caste like Magar, Gurung, Rai, Limbu whereas Terai region supports the caste like tharu, Dhimal, Gangai, Santhal etc. Though Nepal is a small country, a large variation in caste and ethnic groups can be seen. There was not reliable data and document about the various castes of Nepal since from 1911 to 1981. But the census of 2001 and 2011 AD provide exact data about the caste and ethnic groups of Nepal. The given table shows the population composition by the major caste/ethnic groups,

From the given table, we can observe that, Chhetri is the largest caste in Nepal occupying 15.80 percent in 2001 AD and 16.6 percent in 2011 AD. The total percent of Sarki in 2001 AD is 1.40 and 1.41 in 2011 AD. The caste with least population is Koiri/Kushwaha occupying 1.11 percent in 2001 and 1.21 in 2011 AD.

Population Composition by Religion

People of Nepal belongs to the different religion. Nepal is a non-secular state. Nepal is a multi- lingual and multi- religious country. There are various religions followed by people in Nepal like Hindu, Buddist, Islam, Bon etc. The majority of people of Nepal follow Hindu religion and then second Buddhist religion. Nepal is a birthplace of Gautam Buddha. The total percentage of people following Hindu is 80.62 in 2001 and 81.34 in 2011 AD. People also follow other religions like Jain, Prakriti, Bon, Sikh etc. The given table shows the population composition by religion in 2001 and 2011 AD.