With an estimated population of 5,281,927 in the year 2007, Bangalore is the third most populous city in India and the 27th most populous city in the world. With a decadal growth rate of 38%, Bangalore was the fastest-growing Indian metropolis after New Delhi for the decade 1991–2001.Residents of Bangalore are referred to as Bangaloreans in English or Bengaloorinavaru in Kannada. As of 2004, Kannadigas formed about 38.7% of the population, and the rest (61.3%) were non-Kannadigas. The cosmopolitan nature of the city has caused people from other states of India to migrate to Bangalore and settle there Scheduled Castes and Tribes account for 14.3% of the city’s population. Apart from English and Kannada, other major languages spoken in the city are Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

According to the 2001 census of India, 79.37% of Bangalore’s population is Hindu, roughly the same as the national average. Muslims comprise 13.37% of the population, which again is roughly the same as the national average, while Christians and Jains account for 5.79% and 1.05% of the population, respectively; double that of their national averages. Women make up 47.5% of Bangalore’s population. Bangalore has the second highest literacy rate (83%) for an Indian metropolis, after Mumbai. Roughly 10% of Bangalore’s population lives in slums — a relatively low proportion when compared to other cities in the developing world such as Mumbai (42%) and Nairobi (60%). The 2004 National Crime Records Bureau statistics indicate that Bangalore accounts for 9.2% of the total crimes reported from 35 major cities in India. Delhi and Mumbai accounted for 15.7% and 9.5% respectively.