The India Zone

The population of Mumbai is about 18 million, with a density of about 29,000 persons per square kilometre. There are 811 females to every 1,000 males – which is lower than the national average. The overall literacy rate of the city is above 86%, which is higher than the national average. The religions represented in Mumbai include Hindus (68% of the population), Muslims (17% of the population), and Christians and Jains (4% each). The remainder are Parsis, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews and atheists.

According to the 1991 census, the ethnic groups demographics are - Marathi people (42%), Gujarati people (18%), North Indian (21%), Kannadigas (5%), Tamil people (3%), Sindhis (3%) and others.

For a city of its size, Mumbai has a moderate crime rate. Mumbai recorded 27,577 incidents of crime in 2004, which is down 11% from 30,991 in 2001. The city's main jail is the Arthur Road Jail.

Mumbai has a large polyglot population like any other metropolitan city of India. Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra is widely spoken. Other languages spoken are Gujarati, Hindi and English. A colloquial form of Hindi, known as Bambaiya – a blend of Marathi, Hindi, Indian English and some invented colloquial words is spoken on streets. English is extensively spoken, and is the principal language of the city's white collar workforce.

Most of Mumbai's residents live in suburbs like PowaiLike other large cities in the developing world, Mumbai suffers from the same major urbanisation problems seen in many fast growing cities in developing countries — widespread poverty and poor public health, employment, 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. According to the Business Week, around 43% of the population lives in shantytowns and slums. Even though prostitution is illegal in India, Mumbai has a large population of sex workers, estimated to number more than 100,000. High HIV prevalence among the female sex-workers (consistently above 50% since 1993), contributes to the spread of AIDS in the region and the country.