Thursday, December 6, 2012

Trends of Urbanization in India


As per 1901 census, population residing in urban areas in India was little over 11%. The ratio was less than 28% in the year 2001 and in 2011 over 31% of its people resides in urban towns and cities.    Mumbai is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million.  Urbanization in India was mainly caused after independence.  Economic opportunities are just one reason people move into cities besides more infrastructure facilities in the urban areas.
Maharashtra was the most urbanized state in India till 1991, but stood behind Tamil Nadu in 2001, with the urban-total state population ratio. However, Maharashtra's urban population of 41 million, far exceeds that of Tamil Nadu which is at 27 million, as per the 2001 census. At present Delhi has the highest level of urbanization with 97.5% of its population live in urban areas.  Chandigarh is not far behind as its 97.25% reside in urban part of this Union Territory of North India.  Again in North India, Himachal Pradesh, hill state, has the least urbanization with about 10% of its people live in urban towns/cities.  Urbanization during the last decade was more in Southern India as all its major states had quantum jump in share of urban population, namely Kerala (22%), Andhra Pradesh (6%), Karnataka (5%) and Tamil Nadu (4%).
Mumbai UA accommodates 18.4 million people, and is the largest metropolis by population in India, followed by Delhi with 16.3 million inhabitants. For the top 20 urban agglomerations in India, the population is given in the following Table.
Top 20 Urban Agglomerations/Cities in India (Census 2011)
Rank
Agglomerations
/Cities
State
Population
Rank
Agglomerations/
Cities
State
Population
1
Mumbai
Maharashtra
18,414,288
11
Kanpur
Uttar Pradesh
2,920,067
2
Delhi
Delhi
16,314,838
12
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
2,901,474
3
Kolkata
West Bengal
14,112,536
13
Nagpur
Maharashtra
2,497,777
4
Chennai
Tamil Nadu
8,696,010
14
Ghaziabad
Uttar Pradesh
2,358,525
5
Bangalore
Karnataka
8,499,399
15
Indore
Madhya Pradesh
2,167,447
6
Hyderabad
Andhra Pradesh
7,749,334
16
Coimbatore
Tamil Nadu
2,151,466
7
Ahmedabad
Gujarat
6,240,201
17
Kochi
Kerala
2,117,990
8
Pune
Maharashtra
5,049,968
18
Patna
Bihar
2,046,652
9
Surat
Gujarat
4,585,367
19
Kozhikode
Kerala
2,030,519
10
Jaipur
Rajasthan
3,073,350
20
Bhopal
Madhya Pradesh
1,883,381

The fastest rate of urbanization has been observed for top three urban agglomerations in India. Urbanization is taking place at a faster rate in India. As per report of the technical group on population projections constituted by the National Commission on Population (May 2006), the urbanization in India would be 38.8% by the year 2026.  According to a survey by UN State of the World Population report in 2007, by 2030, 40.76% of country's population is expected to reside in urban areas.  India will lead the world's urban population surge by 2050 as per World Bank.  Time will tell whether these projections would be true.  If one fits the trend line to the data as below, one gets that India may achieve the urbanization of 39.72% by the year 2050 only, if the trend continues.
Census Year
1951
1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2011
All-India
17.29
17.97
19.91
23.08
25.49
27.81
31.16

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