Bihar Unpacked / An interactive atlas
Bihar,
through time.
Choose a subject. Move between the moments we can actually see. Find the people and places behind the numbers.
People & places
Different records. Different dates.
One place to look closer.
The slider stops at available observations. Animated changes are transitions between records, not estimates for the years in between.
Stronger colour shows a larger population relative to the largest district in the selected record, not population density. District outlines: geoBoundaries, 2021; this is not a historical boundary map.
Largest district populations 2011
Choose a district on the map or in this list.
BEFORE YOU COMPARE
Every number
has a date.
The atlas brings different kinds of evidence together without treating them as the same thing. A Census is a count; a population projection is a model. Election turnout is a share of registered voters, and a cultural milestone is an event, not a statistic.
Sources and important limitations
- 1901–2001 Bihar state totals: Census A-02 table, page 1; earlier figures use the 2011 jurisdiction as explained in the Census catalogue. 2011 district counts: Census of India via Bihar DES. 2021 and 1 March 2026 district population projections: UNFPA district projections. District sums are not substituted for the separately rounded state input; for 2026 they differ by 997 people.
- Literacy: RBI state literacy table. The age threshold changes from five years and above through 1971 to seven and above from 1981. Historical territorial comparability has not been independently established.
- Assembly turnout: Election Commission via PIB, November 2025 annexure; the 2025 total uses a later provisional release. Bihar’s territorial extent changed in 2000. February and October 2005 are separate elections.
- Economy: Bihar DES, State Domestic Product report, 2011–12 and 2024–25, constant 2011–12 prices. The latter is a quick estimate. It is total output, not income per person.
- Culture: a small editorial selection; the underlying sources and relevant pages are linked with each milestone. This is not a complete timeline of Bihar’s cultural history.