page_title: Goa
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Goa / Demographics / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: Goa memoerial statue.
context_page_description: Goa is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the region known as the Konkan, and geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is surrounded by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the east and south, with the Arabian Sea forming its western coast. It is India's smallest state by area and the fourth-smallest by population. Goa has the highest GDP per capita among all Indian states, two and a half times that of the country. It was ranked the best-placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.
  Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is its largest city. The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter. Goa was a former state of the Portuguese Empire. The Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961. Its majority and official language is Konkani.
context_section_description: According to the 2011 census, in a population of 1,458,545 people, 66.1% were Hindu, 25.1% were Christian, 8.3% were Muslim and 0.1% were Sikh.
  Due to the economic decline of Portuguese India from the 18th century, there was a large-scale migration of Goan Catholics. The local Indian Christians were called "indiacatos" and the mixed population, mestiços by the Portuguese. The population moved from 64.5% Christian and 35% Hindu in 1851 to 50% Christian and 50% Hindu in 1900, with a steady increase in the Hindu proportion from then onwards.
  The Catholics in Goa state and Daman and Diu union territory are served by the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, the primatial see of India, in which the titular Patriarchate of the East Indies is vested.
caption: Hindu-Christianity Unity Memorial at Miramar Beach.
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