According to the 2001 census, the population of Mumbai was 11,914,398,[224] According to extrapolations carried out by the World Gazetteer in 2008, Mumbai has a population of 13,662,885[225] and the Mumbai Metropolitan Area has a population of 21,347,412.[226] The population density is estimated to be about 22,000 persons per square kilometre. Per 2001 census, Greater Mumbai, the area under the administration of BMC, has literacy rate of 77.45%,[227] higher than the national average of 64.8%.[228] The sex ratio was 774 (females per 1,000 males) in the island city, 826 in the suburbs, and 811 as a whole in Greater Mumbai,[227] all numbers lower than the national average of 933 females per 1,000 males.[229] The low sex ratio is due to a large number of male migrants who come to the city to work.[230]
The religions represented in Mumbai include Hindus (67.39%), Muslims (18.56%), Buddhists (5.22%), Jains (3.99%), Christians (3.72%), Sikhs (0.58%), with Parsis and Jews making up the rest of the population.[231] The linguistic/ethnic demographics are: Maharashtrians (42%), Gujaratis (19%), North Indians (24%)[4] and South Indians making up the rest.[232] The oldest Muslim communities in Mumbai include the Dawoodi Bohras, Khojas, and Konkani Muslims.[233] Native Christians include East Indian Catholics who were converted by the Portuguese, during the 16th century.[234] The city also has a small native Bene Israeli Jewish community, who migrated from the Persian Gulf or Yemen, probably 1600 years ago.[235]
Residents of Mumbai call themselves Mumbaikar, Mumbaiite or Bombayite. Mumbai has a large polyglot population like any other metropolitan city of India. Sixteen major languages of India are spoken in Mumbai, the most common being Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and English.[236] English is extensively spoken and is the principal language of the city's white collar workforce. A colloquial form of Hindi, known as Bambaiya—a blend of Marathi, Hindi, Indian English and some invented words—is spoken on the streets.[237]
Mumbai suffers from the same major urbanisation problems seen in many fast growing cities in developing countries: widespread poverty and unemployment, poor public health and poor civic and educational standards for a large section of the population. With available space at a premium, Mumbai residents often reside in cramped, relatively expensive housing, usually far from workplaces, and therefore requiring long commutes on crowded mass transit, or clogged roadways. Many of them live in close proximity to bus or train stations although suburban residents spend significant time travelling southward to the main commercial district.[238] About 60% of Mumbai's population lives in slums.[239] Dharavi, Asia's second largest slum[240] is located in central Mumbai and houses 800,000 people.[241] The number of migrants to Mumbai from outside Maharashtra during the 1991–2001 decade was 1.12 million, which amounted to 54.8% of the net addition to the population of Mumbai.[242] In 2007, the crime rate (crimes booked under Indian Penal Code) in Mumbai was 186.2 per 1,00,000 population, which was slightly higher than the national average of 175.1, but much lower than the average crime rate of 312.3 in cities with more than one million people in the country.[243] The city's main and oldest jail is the Arthur Road Jail.[244]
