Kerala continues to be the only state in the country where women outnumber men with 1,058 females per 1,000 males.

The population of the state stood at 3,18,41,374 (1,54,68,614 males and 1,63,72,760 females) as on March 2001 with the most populous district being Malappuram with 36,25,471 persons.

In 1991, the population of the state was 2,90,98,518.

The state witnessed the lowest growth-rate of 9.4 per cent during 1991-2001 among the states in the country and it was the second lowest growth rate recorded over 100 years, the first being 9.16 per cent recorded in 1921.

The percentage of the Scheduled Castes population had decreased from 9.92 in 1991 to 9.81 in 2001 while the percentage of Scheduled Tribes population had increased from 1.10 in 1991 to 1.14 per cent in 2001.

In density, the state ranks third among the Indian states with 819 persons per sq km, 2.8 times the all India density. West Bengal and Bihar occupy the first two places.