Tamil Nadu recorded a population of 72,147,030, growing by 97.4 lakh persons in the last decade, of which 80.1 per cent are literates, according to the 2011 census.
The total population (as on March 1, 2011) included 36,137,975 males and 36,009,055 females, while the decadal growth rate was 15.6 per cent, M V R Krishna Rao, Joint Director, Census Operations, said.
The population grew by 97.4 lakh persons, including 47.4 lakh males and over 50 lakh females, between 2001 and 2011 census.
"The effective literacy rate in Tamil Nadu works out to 80.1 per cent with male literacy rate of 86.8 per cent and female literacy of 73.4 per cent," he said.
There were 51,837,507 literates, including 23,797,016 female literates. The state had recorded 73.5 per cent literacy in the 2001 census.
In the 2011 census, Kanyakumari, Chennai and Tuticorin were the top literate districts in the state recording 91.7 per cent, 90.2 per cent and 86.2 per cent respectively.
Tamil Nadu's sex ratio increased from 987 (females per 1,000 males) in 2001 to 996 in 2011, Rao said.
Nilgris topped the sex ratio chart with 1,042, followed by Thanjavur (1,035) and Nagapattinam (1,025), while Dharmapuri (946), Salem (954) and Krishnagiri (958) were at the bottom.
Of the total population, there were 7,423,832 children between (0-6 years) in the state, with 3,820,276 boys and 3,603,556 girls, marking a slight increase in the child sex ratio from 942 to 943 during 2001-2011.
Chennai tops the population density chart with 26,553 persons per sq km, while Nilgiris with 287 persons per sq km is
at the bottom. The state's population density works out to 555 persons per sq km, showing an increase of 75 points since 2001.
The Scheduled Caste population stood at 14,438,445 showing an increase of 206 million and marked a decadal growth of 21.8 per cent. The Scheduled Tribe population was 7.9 lakh, with 6.6 lakh of them in the rural areas.
The ST population increased by 104 lakh, constituting a decadal growth of 22 per cent, as per the census.
