NEW DELHI, July 11: India's population stands at over one billion and by 2035 it will overtake China as the world's most populous nation if present trends continue, India's census office said.

The final count released to mark World Population Day on Sunday said India's population stood at 1.029 billion on March 1, 2001. India added 182 million people between 1991 to 2001 which is more than the estimated population of Brazil, officials said on the basis of a final tally of the 2001 census.

By 2035, the population will touch 1.46 billion outstripping China, local media quoted top census official J.K. Banthia as saying. The population of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was 166 million, more than the population of Pakistan, he said.

The census showed that 35 per cent of Indians still could not read or write. Just over half of women were literate. Indians have traditionally preferred sons, regarded as bread-winners, to daughters for whom families have to pay large dowries.

Experts say the obsession with boys has led an increasing number of women to abort females foetuses, which affects the gender ratio. "At 00:00 hours (Saturday/ Sunday) the country's population stood at 1,027,015,247 comprising 531,277,078 men and 495,738,169 women," Banthia said.

The official citing figures from the last census conducted in 2001 said India added 182 million people between 1991 and 2001, which was more than the population of Brazil, the world's fifth most populous country.

Banthia said the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with 166 million people continued to be India's most populous state, followed by western Maharashtra with 97 million residents and eastern Bihar state third with 83 million people.

He also said 64.8 per cent of India's population was literate, with the male literacy rate at 75.3 per cent compared with the female literacy rate of 53.7 per cent. Male literacy shot up 11 percent and female literacy went up by 14.4 percent compared with the 1991 census, Banthia said.

Experts warned that efforts to slow the population growth rate through state-sponsored birth-control programmes could encourage people to commit female foeticide, a practice banned by law.

"India has achieved a (population) growth rate of 1.6 per cent annually which by any account is a positive development keeping in view the current population," said A.R. Nanda, chairman of the autonomous Population Foundation of India.

"(But) the imposition of arbitrary policies to control population will definitely have a fallout as a majority of people in the country may opt for a male child which could lead to gender imbalance."

The 2001 national headcount said low sex ratio in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and New Delhi indicated the prevalence of female foeticide. "The child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years at the national level slipped from 945 (females to 1,000 males) in 1991 to 927 in the last census," Banthia added. -AFP