it a ranking of 156th in India (out of a total of 640). The population is divided among 579,170 families. About 10% of the total population is of children below the age of 10 years. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 11.86%. Cuttack has a sex ratio of 940 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 84.2%, both higher than the all India average. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 19.00% and 3.57% of the population respectively. The child sex ratio of 914 is lower than the overall district average. Cuttack's demographics are broadly consistent with the rest of coastal Odisha. About 28.05% of the population is urban – substantially higher than the Odisha average. This is due to the presence of the large city of Cuttack with more than 600,000 inhabitants. Religion Hindus are the overwhelming majority of the district's population with more than 93.65% of the population practising Hinduism. Scheduled Castes constitute 19% of the overall population while Scheduled Tribes are about 3%. Religion plays an important role in the lives of people and temples are present in every habitation. Like much of Odisha, Jagannath is the preferred deity of worship while other gods and goddesses like Durga, Ganesha and Shiva also have large shrines dedicated to them. Almost every village has a local shrine where the presiding female deity or Gram Thakurani is worshipped. Odia Muslims are about 5.38% of the population and are primarily concentrated in Cuttack city as well as the blocks of Mahanga, Salepur, Niali and Nischintakoili. As noted above, they are distinguished by the use of Odia Hindustani as their mother tongue. Almost all are Sunnis of the Hanafi school. Small communities of Shia – mainly Bohra and Ismaili from Gujarat are found in Cuttack city while Ahmadiyya are found in Tigiria block. Large mosques are to be found in Cuttack, Raisunguda and Mahanga areas. Christians number about 0.46% of the population and are almost all descendants of converts from Hinduism. They are concentrated in Cuttack city and a couple of nearby villages in Athagad block. The population is mostly Roman Catholic with a large number of Church of North India adherents as well. The community also runs a number of well regarded educational institutions throughout the district. A small community of Mahayana Buddhists numbering around 6,000 are