[9] Hyderabad city's literacy rate is 82.96% (male 85.96% and female 79.79%), higher than the national average of 74.04%.
[3][7] A proposal to expand the area covered by the city to make it 721 square kilometres (278 sq mi) by merging the surrounding gram panchayats and around 30 villages is being considered, as of 2009.
The minority communities of Hyderabad are Kannadiga (including Nawayathi), Marwari, Odia, Bengali, Tamil, Malayali, Gujarati, Marathis, Hindavi, Sindhi, Iranian, Punjabi, Pathan, and Turkic.
Among the foreign-origin communities Yemeni Arabs form the majority with African Arabs, Iranian, Pathani and Turkic as minorities - who kept settling here during Muslim rule, but which declined after the accession of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.
[16] A significant population of the city speaks different languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam.