Level of Urbanisation

Level of Urbanisation

Among all the States and Union territories, the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union territory of Chandigarh are most urbanized with 97.5 percent and 97.25 percent urban population respectively, followed by Daman and Diu (75.2 percent) and Puducherry (68.3 percent).

Among States, Goa is now the most urbanised State with 62.2 percent urban population, a significant increase since 2001 when urban population of Goa was 49.8%. Another significant instance of rapid urbanisation is that of Kerala, its urban population is now 47.7 per cent, while a decade ago it was just 25.9 percent. Among the North-Eastern States, Mizoram is most urbanised with 51.5 per cent urban population, though in terms of absolute contribution to total urban population in the country, Mizoram’s contribution is just 0.1 percent. Similarly Sikkim, which was just 11.0 urbanised a decade ago became almost 25 percent urbanised in 2011. Among major states, Tamil Nadu continues to be the most urbanized state with 48.4 percent of the population living in urban areas followed now by Kerala (47.7 per cent) upstaging Maharashtra (45.2 percent).

The proportion of urban population continues to be the lowest in Himachal Pradesh with 10.0 per cent followed by Bihar with 11.3 percent, Assam (14.1 percent) and Orissa (16.7 percent).

In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra continues to lead with 50.8 million persons which comprises 13.5 percent of the total urban population of the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 44.4 million, followed by Tamil Nadu at 34.9 million.

Urban Growth

In India out of the total population of 1210.2 million as on 1st March, 2011, about 377.1 million are in urban areas. The net addition of population in urban areas over the last decade is 91.0 million.

The percentage of urban population to the total population of the country stands at 31.6. There has been an increase 3.35 percentage points in the proportion of urban population in the country during 2001-2011.

The provisional results of Census 2011 reveals that there is an increase of 2774 towns comprising 242 Statutory and 2532 Census towns over the decade. Growth rate of population in urban areas was 31.8%.

Further the number of million plus cities/urban agglomeration UA has increased from 35 in Census 2001 to 53 in Census 2011. The new entrants are Srinagar UA Jam-mu and Kashmir,Union Territory of Chandigarh UA, Jodhpurs UA and Kota Rajas than, Ghaziabad UA Uttar Pradesh, Ranchi UA Jharkhand, Raipur UA and Durg-Bhilainagar UA Chattisgarh, Gwalior UA Madhya Pradesh, Vasai Virar and Aurangabad UA Maharashtra, Kozhikode UA, Thrissur UA, Malappuram UA, Thiruvananthapuram UA, Kannur UA and Kollam UA Kerala, and Tiruchirapalli US Tamil Nadu. So while the States of Jammu and Kashmir and Chattisgarh now also have million plus city/UA, Kerala now has as many as 7 million plus cities/UA, a quantum jump from the situation in 2001 when just Kochi UA was a million plus city/UA.
Population Census 2001 and 2011

Persons in million numbers Decadal growth in population %
2001 2011 1991-2001 2001-2011
Total 1029 1210 21.5 17.6
Rural 743 833 18.1 12.2
Urban 286
27.81% 377
31.16% 31.5 31.8
+0.3%