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Demographics

The most widely followed religion in Punjab is Sikhism with around 60% of the population being Sikhs. Out of the remaining 40%, 37% follow Hinduism and 4% follow various religions like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Jainism.

Of the Sikh population, the most common are the Jat Sikhs, for whom agriculture is the main profession. During 1991, the population of Punjab was at 20.19 million. It grew up to around 24.3 million in the next ten years. Now as of 2013, the population stands at around 36 million. Around 20% of the people of Punjab belong to other states. The basic education rate of the population stands at around 75% which is quite reasonable. Since agriculture is the main profession of the people, a major junk of the population, that is, around 66% is concentrated around the rural areas of Punjab.

While talking about Punjab, it is almost impossible not to mention about the Harmandir Sahib or the Golden Temple. This picturesque shrine is located at Amritsar. The Sikhs believe that there are total 5 Takhts, meaning temporal seats in the Sikhism religion. These Takhts are considered to be very sacred by them. Out of these 5, three are in Punjab, making it a place of extremely great religious importance. Inside the Golden temple, one can find the Sri Akal Takht Sahib Ji. Anandpur Sahib which was visited by Guru Gobind Singh for creating the Khalsa on Baisakhi day is in Punjab. Festivals like Diwali, Baisakhi, Hola Mohalla or Gurpurb saw hundreds of Sikh devotees marching on the streets together in almost all the major cities. Every minute village or town houses a Gurudwara in Punjab, due to the huge number of Sikhs here. These Gurudwaras are built in various sizes, structures and patterns.

Punjabi language, written in the script of Gurmukhi , is the native language of Punjab. The towns of Malerkotla, Sangrur, Chandigarh and Qadian are dominated by followers of Islam. Gurdaspur is a place which is dominated by Christians, who make up to around 1.1% of the total population of Punjab. Lots of labourers from nearby states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have started to migrate to Punjab. This has brought in a slight increase in the non-Sikh population in the state.

An important observation from the population of Punjab is the decreasing trend of the sex ratio. This is ratio is always on the decrease and according to recent reports, for every 1000 males, there are only 850 females in the state.

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