Indian census puts population at about 1.2 billion

India's new national census puts the population at about 1.21 billion people, or 17% of the world population, the census commissioner said Thursday.

The increase of 181 million over the last decade is near what officials had estimated, C. Chandramauli said. While it is a 17.6% increase from the 2001 census, it is slower than the previous count that showed 21.5% growth. (AP)