The world population which was around 2 billion (2000 million) in 1900 rocketed to about 6 billion by 2000 and 7.2 billion in 2011. India's population which was approximately 350 million at the time of independence reached close to the one billion mark by 2000 and crossed 1.2 billion in May 2011. According to the 2011 census report, the population growth rate was less than 2 percent.