KATHMANDU, Nov 26: The country’s population stands at 26,494,504 with an annual growth rate of 1.35 percentage as per the final report of National Population and Housing Census 2011 published by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
As per the census, the male population is recorded as 12,849,041 while female stands at 13,645,463. The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) has been reduced from 99.8 in 2001 to 94.2 in 2011, the report says.
The decade witnessed increase in literacy rate (for population aged 5 years and above) to 65.9 percent from 54.1 percent in 2001. The male literacy rate is 75.1 percent in comparison to female which is 57.4 percent. Kathmandu has highest literacy rate (86.3 percent) while Rautahat the least (41.7 percent).
Terai constitutes of 50.27 percent (13,318,705) of the total population while population in hilly and mountain areas constitute 43 percent (11,394,007) and 6.73 percent (1,781,792) respectively.
There are 123 languagues spoken as mother language with Nepali as the largest (44.6 percent) followed by Maithali (11.7 percent) and Bhojpuri (6.0 percent).
Similarly, there are 125 ethnic/caste groups reported in this census with majority of Chhetri (16.6 percent). Brahmin (12.2 percent) and Magar (7.1 percent) population stand at second and third respectively.
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