People and Lifestyle

The people of Goa prefer to call themselves Goans. As per census report 2011 of India approximately 1457723 people reside in Goa. Among them about 66% of population are belongs to Hinduism, 26.5% Christians, 6.9% Muslims, and rest are Buddhist and Sikh with a low percent. The Hindu community is dominant at Ponda, Bicholim, Pernem, Satari, Sanguem, Quepem and Canacona. Salcete, Mormugao, Tiswadi and Bardez are dominated by Christians communities.

But the interesting fact is that the religious identity does nothing to change the warm, friendly and loving nature of the Goan people. By and large, the Goan people considers himself a Goans first and a Hindu, Christian or Muslim afterwards. , Goans have developed a remarkable degree of tolerance towards each other's religious beliefs, and hence religious fundamentalism is completely unknown in the state.

People of the state mainly use Konkani as their main dialect. Near about 60.1% of population speak this language. Some other major spoken languages of Goa are Marathi 24.9% (approx), Kannada 11% and some small linguistic groups. Konkani is accepted as the official language of the state and English language is also used few regions