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Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for later this year, a narrative has been picking up steam across social media platforms claiming that Muslim-majority districts in the poll-bound state showed an alarmingly high saturation percentage of Aadhaar — referring to the extent of Aadhaar coverage within a given area.
When a region reaches 100% Aadhaar saturation, it means that every individual in that area is presumed to have an Aadhaar ID.
Now, according to the posts shared by the X accounts — several of them right-leaning — including BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya, while Bihar’s average Aadhaar saturation stands at 94%, the figures from Muslim-dominated districts go above 120% — which means over 120 Aadhaar cards per 100 citizens.
“….Now imagine what the situation must be like in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee is already squirming. Who are these extra Aadhaar cards being issued to — and why? This also explains why the opposition and the Leftist lobby are so eager to push Aadhaar as proof of citizenship!” further read the X post by Malviya, which has clocked 24K views so far.
The posts also shared a 1:28-minute excerpt from an Aaj Tak news show, dated July 9, 2025, where the anchor and managing editor, Anjana Om Kashyap, discussed the purported issue of high density of Aadhar cards in the Seemanchal region of Bihar, a border area “allegedly” vulnerable to illegal immigration from Bangladesh, even as she said that it is a “fact” that the saturation percentage was suspiciously high in Muslim-dominated districts — naming Kishanganj (126% Aadhar saturation), Katihar (123%), Araria (123%) and Purnia (121%).
The viral excerpt can be seen from the 01:55 mark.
A July 10, 2025 article on News18 cited reports and social media posts to state that the presence of foreigners living illegally in the geographically sensitive Seemanchal region has been a longstanding concern. The region borders West Bengal, Nepal, and is not far from Bangladesh. According to the report, Bangladeshi infiltrators might have received Aadhaar cards using fake documents, allegedly supported by local leaders and fundamentalist groups.
Newschecker learnt that the Aadhaar saturation rates are calculated using recent projected population estimates, effectively meaning that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the government authority overseeing the Aadhaar program, is comparing the number of Aadhaar cards to the projected population for the year 2025, as per Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI) data.
In the 14 years since the 2011 census, the country’s population has grown, and migration both within and between states and districts can also be a cause for saturation rates to exceed 100% in certain areas.
As of 2025, the latest official figures on the religious composition of India’s population is not available, although there are estimates derived from demographic studies. The new census data is only expected to be released in 2027.
However, Newschecker found that the viral claim uses religion-wise population data from the 2011 Census, which means that the figures cited in the claim were based on a mix of old and new data (referring to Aadhaar saturation rates based on 2025 estimates), and may provide an unreliable picture.
We delved deeper into the same sources used in the viral claim, which included the UIDAI’s Aadhaar dashboard and the religion-wise population data as per the 2011 Census, to see if an accurate picture was presented.
Newschecker first looked up the official Aadhar saturation figures of the four Bihar districts shared in the viral post.
According to the UIDAI’s Aadhaar dashboard, the percentages of Kishanganj (126%), Katihar (123%), Araria (123%) and Purnia (121%) were indeed the same as it was stated in the viral post. Interestingly, we noticed that barring Jehanabad at 97%, all the remaining 37 districts in Bihar had an Aadhaar saturation percentage of over 100%, including Patna at 113%. Kishanganj, however, has the highest Aadhaar saturation figure in Bihar at 126%.
Source: Aadhaar Dashboard
We then looked up the latest available official religion-wise population data of Bihar, from the 2011 Census, and found that Hindus constitute 82.69% of the state and Kishanganj is the only district with a clear Muslim majority at 67.98%. Although Purnia (38.46%), Araria (42.95%) and Katihar (44.47%) have a sizable Muslim population, as stated in the viral post, they are not the majority community in these districts as claimed.
According to the official data, apart from Jehanabad (92.9%), the districts with the highest percentage of Hindus are Lakhisarai (95.5%), Buxar (93.8%), Sheikhpura (93.7%), Nalanda (92.7%), and Bhojpur (92.3%)
These are the Aadhaar saturation figures of the above districts:
Source: Aadhaar Dashboard
It is evident that saturation rates were well above 100% in multiple areas, challenging the viral narrative that this phenomenon was unique to Muslim-majority districts.
Newschecker found that Aadhaar saturation levels exceeded 100% in at least four states and union territories — Haryana, Goa, Chandigarh, and Puducherry — as early as 2016.
“Nine Indian states and Union Territories have now fully attained 100 percent Aadhaar saturation in India. The National capital, Delhi topped the list with 119 percent, where the number of ‘Aadhaar assigned’ is 21,113,102 in a projected population of 17,720,573. Meanwhile, Haryana is in the second spot with 104 percent where the number of ‘Aadhaar assigned’ is 27,782,515 in a projected population of 26,816,977. Meanwhile, Telangana (102 percent) was placed third in the list. The other places in the list were Himachal Pradesh (102 percent), Punjab (102 percent), Lakshadweep (102 percent), Goa (101 percent), Chandigarh (101 percent)and Kerala (100 percent),” read a Financial Express report, dated May 2, 2017.
In an official note, the UIDAI, in 2018, noted that states such as Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh and Telangana have more than 100% saturation till October 31 (2018). “In these states, UIDAI needs to undertake an operational shift from enrolments to updates plus other Aadhaar services. The need for update is likely to increase as more states have become saturated and more and more government and non-government services are rolled out using Aadhaar.”
Newschecker then looked up the latest official Aadhar saturation figures across India, where we found that excluding nine states and union territories, the remaining 27 had an Aadhaar saturation of over 100% with Delhi, having a Hindu majority of 81.68% as per the 2011 census, the highest at 133%.
Source: Aadhaar Dashboard
According to the UIDAI, South Delhi, having a Hindu majority of 78.90% as per the 2011 census, has an Aadhaar saturation of 150%, the highest in Delhi, which, again, contradicted the viral claim that Aadhaar oversaturation was a Bihar and religion-specific trend.
Similarly, Haryana, with a Hindu majority of 87.46% as per the 2011 census, had the next-highest Aadhaar saturation rate among Indian states and union territories at 115%, with multiple districts registering figures above 120%, including Faridabad (Hindu majority of 87.77%) at 157% and Panipat (Hindu majority of 89.92%) at 134%.
Source: Aadhaar Dashboard
“Aadhaar saturation can cross 100% when the migrant population also enrolls in that particular state,” read a PIB report, dated May 12, 2016, on a special enrolment drive in multiple states and union territories.
High migration, double registrations, or failure to account for deaths, are all possible reasons for the oversaturation figures.
The UIDAI, in response to an RTI query by the media outlet India Today regarding Aadhaar deactivations, clarified that Aadhaar saturation happens after Aadhaar numbers of the deceased are not promptly deactivated, which continue to inflate local saturation figures, sometimes resulting in more Aadhaar holders than actual residents. Thus coupled with outdated population numbers exaggerate local coverage of Aadhaar inflating the statistics.
According to information provided by UIDAI Tech Centre in 2019, nearly 4.75 lakh duplicate Aadhaar numbers were cancelled as of November 2019, which indicated that on an average no less than 145 Aadhaars generated in a day during the period of nine years since 2010 were duplicate numbers requiring cancellation.
“UIDAI stated (September 2019) that the biometric de-duplication ensures uniqueness with accuracy of 99.9 per cent, but in cases where residents with poor biometrics enroll, their accuracy could be slightly poor which could lead to generation of multiple Aadhaars,” read page 20 of the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India’s audit report no. 24 of 2021, which is the latest CAG document on the functioning of the UIDAI.
“De-duplication process remained vulnerable for generating multiple Aadhaar numbers and manual interventions had to be done to resolve the problem,” further read page 19 of the CAG report on the UIDAI, which indicates the possibility of Aadhaar oversaturation.
Hence, the viral claim that poll-bound Bihar’s Muslim-majority districts, allegedly vulnerable to illegal immigration from Bangladesh, showed a suspiciously high Aadhaar saturation percentage of over 100%, was misleading as it shared the figures out of context and ignored the statistics of other districts and states based on the same data. Also, we could not yet confirm the exact structure of the current population as the latest official data, including religion-wise composition, is from the 2011 Census, while the Aadhaar saturation rates were calculated based on population estimates.
Sources
Aadhaar Dashboard, Unique Identification Authority of India
Census Digital Library
Financial Express report, May 2, 2017
PIB report, May 12, 2016
India Today report, July 16, 2025
Runjay Kumar
September 12, 2025
Vasudha Beri
September 5, 2025
Vasudha Beri
September 4, 2025
