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As of the provisional population totals of 2011 census, Tirunelveli urban agglomeration had a population of 498,984, with 246,710 males and 252,274 females. The sex ratio of the city was 1023 and the child sex ratio stood at 957. Tirunelveli had an average literacy rate of 90.86% with male literacy being 94.93% and female literacy being 86.91%. A total of 42,756 of the population of the city was under 6 years of age.
As of the census of India 2001, Tirunelveli had a population of 411,831; 203,232 males and 208,599 females. The sex ratio of the city stood at 1026, which was higher than the state average of 982 in 2001. There were a total of 94,407 households. A total of 50,564 people constituting 13.77% of the total population belonged to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 1,696 people constituting 0.46% of the population belong to Scheduled tribes (ST). Tirunelveli had an average literacy rate of 86.18%: male literacy is 82.27%, and female literacy is 71.58%. A total of 12.12% of the population of the city was under 6 years of age. There were a total of 153,841 workers, comprising 1,281 cultivators, 6,143 agricultural labourers, 28,212 in house hold industries, 109,847 other workers, 8,358 marginal workers, 55 marginal cultivators, 1,209 marginal agricultural labourers, 2,209 in marginal workers in household industries and 4,885 other marginal workers.
Traditionally the city was a Hindu centre, but mass conversion was effected by missionaries in the regions of Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari and Travancore. A set of villages in the commuunity of Shanars (now elevated to nadars) were converted to Christianity and the goddess temples were turned to prayer schools.The first conversion was effected in 1784 CE. In spite of stiff resistance from the landlords in the region for these conversion, the mass conversion activities continued through to the 19th century.While the upper caste converts were oriented towards spiritual needs, the lower caste conversion was motivated by access to education and equality with upper castes. The proportion of converts to Christianity effected by the missionaries in Tirunelveli is the largest than any other province in India.
