Multilingualism in India
The Constitution of India designates the official languages of India as Hindi and English. The number of bilingual speakers in India is 314.9 million, which is 26% of the population in 2011.
Multilingualism
Hindi
Hindi is one of the official languages of India and had 528 million native speakers as of the 2011 Census. About 139 million Indians speak Hindi as a second language and 24 million speak it as their third language.| Language | First language speakers | First language speakers as a percentage of total population | Second language speakers | Third language speakers | Total speakers | Total speakers as a percentage of total population |
| Hindi | 52,83,47,193 | 43.63 | 13.9 | 2.4 | 69.2 | 57.10 |
| English | 2,59,678 | 0.02 | 8.3 | 4.6 | 12.9 | 10.60 |
| Bengali | 9,72,37,669 | 8.30 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 10.7 | 8.90 |
| Marathi | 8,30,26,680 | 7.09 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 9.9 | 8.20 |
| Telugu | 8,11,27,740 | 6.93 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 9.5 | 7.80 |
| Tamil | 6,90,26,881 | 5.89 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 7.7 | 6.30 |
| Gujarati | 5,54,92,554 | 4.74 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 6.0 | 5.00 |
| Urdu | 5,07,72,631 | 4.34 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 6.3 | 5.20 |
| Kannada | 4,37,06,512 | 3.73 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 5.9 | 4.94 |
| Odia | 3,75,21,324 | 3.20 | 0.5 | 0.039 | 4.3 | 3.56 |
| Malayalam | 3,48,38,819 | 2.97 | 0.05 | 0.021 | 3.6 | 2.9 |
| Punjabi | 3,31,24,726 | 2.83 | 0.223 | 0.072 | 3.66 | 3.0 |
| Sanskrit | 24,821 | <0.01 | 0.123 | 0.196 | 0.312 | 0.19 |
Multilingualism by state
Combined percentages of first, second and third language speakers of Hindi and English in India from the 2011 Census.| State or union territory | Hindi | English |
| India | 57.11% | 10.62% |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 79.87% | 21.94% |
| Andhra Pradesh | 12.59% | 13.06% |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 62.76% | 23.08% |
| Assam | 25.24% | 8.05% |
| Bihar | 89.37% | 2.72% |
| Chandigarh | 94.05% | 41.62% |
| Chhattisgarh | 93.64% | 2.29% |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 57.50% | 10.34% |
| Daman and Diu | 76.19% | 15.38% |
| Delhi | 96.75% | 31.72% |
| Goa | 53.34% | 41.80% |
| Gujarat | 43.63% | 12.44% |
| Haryana | 95.34% | 15.59% |
| Himachal Pradesh | 96.57% | 10.64% |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 38.00% | 15.98% |
| Jharkhand | 85.43% | 5.15% |
| Karnataka | 12.27% | 11.83% |
| Kerala | 9.12% | 20.15% |
| Lakshadweep | 17.87% | 19.30% |
| Madhya Pradesh | 95.74% | 5.44% |
| Maharashtra | 52.09% | 14.32% |
| Manipur | 18.44% | 31.62% |
| Meghalaya | 13.95% | 15.61% |
| Mizoram | 7.01% | 15.50% |
| Nagaland | 15.89% | 32.57% |
| Odisha | 18.76% | 17.23% |
| Puducherry | 3.87% | 28.10% |
| Punjab | 51.04% | 30.05% |
| Rajasthan | 95.04% | 4.55% |
| Sikkim | 47.96% | 27.69% |
| Tamil Nadu | 2.11% | 18.49% |
| Tripura | 9.95% | 7.53% |
| Uttar Pradesh | 97.40% | 6.42% |
| Uttarakhand | 97.19% | 8.36% |
| West Bengal | 13.83% | 6.70% |