page_title: Lakshadweep
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Lakshadweep / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA picture of Maliku Atoll with Minicoy Island
context_page_description: Lakshadweep, formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy and Aminidivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the southwestern coast of India. The archipelago is administered as a union territory and district of India. They were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group. Lakshadweep means "one hundred thousand islands" in Sanskrit, Marathi and Malayalam. The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India and their total surface area is just 32 km². The lagoon area covers about 4,200 km², the territorial waters area 20,000 km² and the exclusive economic zone area 400,000 km². The region forms a single Indian district with 10 subdivisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.
  As the islands have no aboriginal inhabitants, scholars have suggested different histories for the settlement of these islands.
context_section_description: According to the 2011 census Lakshadweep has a population of 64,473, roughly equal in number to that of the Marshall Islands.  This gives it a ranking of 627th among the 640 districts in India. The district has a population density of 2,013 inhabitants per square kilometre (5,210/sq mi). Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 6.23%. Lakshadweep has a sex ratio of 946 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 92.28%.
  Most people of Lakshadweep are descendants of migrants from the Malabar Coast of southwest India and the islanders are ethnically similar to coastal Kerala's Malayali people. More than 93% of the indigenous population are Muslims, and the majority of them belong to the Shafi School of the Sunni Sect. The southernmost and second largest island of Minicoy has an ethnically Mahls population that are native to the Maldives.
caption: NASA picture of Maliku Atoll with Minicoy Island
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