International Journal of Health Sciences & Research (www.ijhsr.org) 265 Vol.8; Issue: 7; July 2018 International Journal of Health Sciences and Research www.ijhsr.org ISSN: 2249-9571 Original Research Article Demographic Profile of Rural Population from Western Maharashtra of India N. S. Patil 1 , B. G. Kore 2 , S. V. Kakade 3 1 Assistant Professor (Statistics), A. S. C. College, Ramanandnagar, Dist.: Sangli, Maharashtra, India 2 Associate Professor & Head, Department of Statistics, Balwant College, Vita, Dist.: Sangli, Maharashtra, India 3 Associate Professor (Statistics), Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Karad, Dist.: Satara, Maharashtra, India Corresponding Author: N. S. Patil ABSTRACT India is the second most populated country in the world. Since 1901 census, the rural population is found to be declining steadily. However, though there is rapid growth in urbanization, still the bulk of population is residing in rural area. The objective of this study was to assess the present pattern of rural population to understand the future population trend. Seven villages with population < 5000 were randomly selected from Sangli district of Maharashtra. These 7 villages comprised the population of 10,489. Sex ratio was 926 females per 1000 males. 38.0% of the population was below the age of 25 years while 55.4 % below the age of 35 years. Age-sex structure revealed the high population proportion at 20-25 years in both sexes with declining proportion in both directions of the age. The total Dependency Ratio (modified) of 46.9% indicted high burden on the productive part of the population. Key words: Sex Ratio, Population Proportion, Dependency Ratio INTRODUCTION The demographic profile of a country indicates the risk groups across age and sex. Most low and middle income countries for instance, have a classic expansive population pyramid which depicts a 'youth bulge' or a greater proportion of younger people. [1] There is decline in growth rate of rural India by 5.9%, from 18.1% (1991 to 2001) to 12.2% (2001 to 2011). This sharp decline resulted in reducing rural population proportion from 72.19% to 68.84% as per census 2001 and 2011, respectively. This increased trend of migration towards urban area formed 2279 new villages. During two census years 2001 and 2011 there was no improvement in rural sex ratio (946 vs. 947) but improved rural literacy (58.7% vs. 68.9%) characterized by high improvement in female literacy (increase of 12.7%) than male literacy (increase of 7.9%). [2] Demographic information is critical to priority setting for preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative health care services and the allocation of resources to meet the needs of the various sectors of the population. Though urbanization is increased, still there is big bulk residing in rural area. The rural population has to play the equal role in the upcoming India. Thus the present study was undertaken to know the recent scenario of the characteristics of rural population as well as its structure. MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY Data was collected from randomly selected villages of Palus taluka of Sangli district of Maharashtra satisfying criteria of