A social media post that contrasted the reproduction rates of India's various religious sects went viral.

The claim: The article gives the fertility rates for each Indian religion, which are 1.94 for Hindus, 4.4 for Muslims, 1.61 for Sikhs, 1.88 for Christians, 1.6 for Jains, and 1.39 for Buddhists.

Listing these numbers, it tells users that they are "why we need a Population Control Law ASAP (sic)."

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim on social media can be seen here and here.)

But...?: The claim is false as it misrepresents the figure for the Muslim community.

As per the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), the total fertility rate in the Muslim community stands at 2.36, and not 4.4 as claimed.

How did we find out the truth?: The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) records data related to fertility by religion in surveys conducted by the government.

The latest report, the NFHS-5, studied the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of India's population over a period of three years from 2019 to 2021.

Table 4.2 of the report lists TFR for women between the ages of 15 and 49, sorted by residence, schooling, and religion.

Here, we saw that the claim listed accurate figures for every religious community apart from the Muslim community.

While the claim states that the TFR for Muslim women is 4.4, in reality, the figure is much lower and stands at 2.36.