Fact-Check: Viral Claim About Muslim Demographics in Uttarakhand Is False

In 2001, Uttarakhand had 11.92 percent Muslims, which grew to 13.94 percent in 2011.

A post which talks about an "alarming" change in the religious composition of the population of Uttarakhand is being shared on social media.

The claim: The post claims that in 2001, the Muslim community made up 1.5 percent of the state's population, but in 2024, the figure has grown to 16 percent.

At the time of writing this report, this post by X user '@RealBababanaras' gathered over 4.8 lakh views on the platform.

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, here, and here.)

But...?: The claim is false.

• Official census data from 2001 and the latest census data from 2011 do not support the claim.

• Since there was no census in or since 2021, there are no publicly accessible official figures for Uttarakhand's demographics.

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How did we find out the truth?: We looked for official data for population by religion on the census website.

2001

Since the data closest to the year 2000 is the 2001, we looked at Uttarakhand's population by religious community in the 2001 census.

This data showed that in 2001, Uttarakhand's total population was 84,89,349, of which 10,12,141 belonged to the Muslim community.

In percentage values, this means that 11.92 percent of Uttarakhand's population identified as Muslim in 2001, and not 1.5 percent as claimed.

2011

The 2011 census is the latest official census by the Government of India.

Data for Uttarakhand's population by religion in 2011 shows that the state had 14,06,825 Muslims when the total population was 1,00,86,292 people.

This means that in 2011, 13.94 percent of people in Uttarakhand belonged to the Muslim community.

Between these consecutive censuses, Uttarakhand's Muslim population grew by 2.02 percent.

UTTARAKHAND’S POPULATION BY RELIGION IN 2001 AND 2011 by Quint Digital Media Limited

Conclusion: The viral claim is false. Uttarakhand had 11.92 percent (NOT 1.5 percent) Muslims in 2001 and their composition grew to 19.94 percent in 2011.

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