Vital Rates, Sex Ratio, Life Expectancy and Literacy

Vital Rates

Vital rates (vital statistics) measure the fundamental demographic events of birth and death in a population, usually expressed per thousand persons per year.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is the number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year:

Crude Death Rate (CDR) is the number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year:

Natural Growth Rate is simply the difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate:

Both CBR and CDR have declined substantially in India over recent decades due to improved healthcare, family planning programmes, and rising female education — this decline is the statistical evidence behind India's progress through the demographic transition described earlier.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) measures the number of deaths of infants (under one year of age) per 1,000 live births in a year. IMR is one of the most sensitive indicators of a country's healthcare quality and maternal-and-child welfare; India's IMR has fallen substantially over the decades but historically remained higher than in developed countries, making it a continuing focus of health policy.

Sex Ratio

Sex ratio in India is conventionally expressed as the number of females per 1,000 males. As per Census 2011, India's sex ratio stood at 943 females per 1,000 males, an improvement over the 933 recorded in the 2001 Census, though it still indicates a gender imbalance rooted in social factors such as son preference and, historically, female foeticide. The child sex ratio (0–6 years) is tracked separately and is a particular policy concern because it reflects current, not historical, gender bias.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn is expected to live, given prevailing mortality patterns. India's life expectancy has risen steadily from under 32 years around independence to well above 65–70 years in recent decades, reflecting improvements in nutrition, sanitation, healthcare access, and control of infectious disease — a core indicator of the long-and-healthy-life dimension of human development discussed later in this chapter.

Literacy Rate …