Last Updated on July 15, 2022 at 6:20 pm
Jammu and Kashmir has the highest percentage of single people in the 15 to 29 age range out of all the states and union territories, a government survey states.
According to the “Youth in India 2022” report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the percentage of adults (aged till 29) who are not married in J&K is 29.1% which is higher than the national average. It is the highest percentage reported by any Indian state or union territory.
In 2011, 25.3% of young people in J&K between the ages of 15 and 29 were unmarried. In J&K, 27.1 percent males and 23.5 percent women were single either by necessity or choice. The percentage of unmarried young people increased to 25.9% of the population in 2015 and to 29.1% in 2019.
The survey also revealed that between the ages of 15 and 29, there are more single males than females in J&K. In India, the proportion of people between the ages of 15 and 29 who are not married has increased from 17.2 percent in 2011 to 23 percent as of now, according to the government poll. The National Youth Policy defines a person between the ages of 15 and 29 young.
The proportion of young individuals (15-29 years old) who have never been married has climbed in both the male and female populations, going from 20.8 percent in 2011 to 26.1 percent in 2019, according to the latest report from the National Statistical Office. The female population has also noticed a similar tendency. The survey, however, gave no explanation for the increased number of single young people.
It claimed that the number of early marriages has been falling over time in India. According to the data, 1.7% of adolescent women (15–19 years old) were married for the first time by the age of 15 in 2019–21, down from 11.9% in 2005–2006.
The report further mentions that just 52.8% of women in the 25-29 age cohort were married for the first time by the age of 20 in 2019–2021, compared to 72.4% in 2005–2006. This is a considerable decrease from the level of age at first marriage seen for women in this age cohort. In India, men tend to marry far later than women do, with 42.9% of men getting first married by the age of 25 in 2019–21. For women, this figure was almost twice as high at 83 percent.
According to the Report of Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011–2036, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 27.3 percent of its population being between the ages of 15 and 29. India’s population, which was 121 crore in 2011, is expected to have grown to 136 crore by 2021.
