URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Urban Growth

In India out of the total population of 1027 million as on 1^st March, 2001, about 742 million live in rural areas and 285 million in urban areas. The net addition of population in rural areas during 1991-2001 has been to the tune of 113 million while in urban areas it is 6 million. The percentage decadal growth of population in rural and urban areas during the decade is 17.9 and 31.2 percent respectively.

The percentage of urban population to the total population of the country stands at 27.8. The percentage of urban population to total population in the 1991 Census (including interpolated population of Jammu & Kashmir where Census could not be conducted in 1991) was 25.7 percent. Thus, there has been an increase on 2.1 percentage points in the proportion of urban population in the country during 1991 – 2001.

Sl. No.	India/State/Union territory*	T/R/U	Population			Percent urban population
			Persons	Males	Females
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
INDIA		T	1,027.015,247	531,277,078	495,738,169	27.8
		R	741,660,293	381,141,184	360,519,109
		U	285,354,954	150,135,894	135,219,060

Source: The Provisional Population Totals for India and sates for the census of India – 2001.

Level of Urbanisation

Among all the States and Union territories, the National Capital Territory of Delhi is most urbanized with 93 percent urban population followed by Union territory of Chandigarh (89.8 percent) and Pondicherry (66.6 percent).

Among the major States, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanized state with 43.9 percent of the population living in urban areas followed by Maharashtra (42.4 percent) and Gujarat (37.4 percent). The proportion of urban population is the lowest in Himachal Pradesh with 9.8% followed by Bihar with 10.5 percent, Assam (12.7 percent) and Orissa (14.9 percent).

In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra leads with 41 million persons which is 14 percent of the total population of the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 35 million followed by Tamil Nadu 27 million.

Urban Morphology

The number of towns and cities have increased to 4378, as detailed below:

Urban Agglomerations/Towns by Class/Category : Census of India 2001

Class	Population Size	No.of UAs/Towns
Class I	1,00,000 and above	393
Class II	50,000 - 99,999	401
Class III	20,000 - 49,999	1,151
Class IV	10,000 - 19,999	1,344
Class V	5,000 - 9,999	888
Class VI	Less than 5,000	191
Unclassified		10*
All classes		4378

Note : Data is provisional

* Population Census 2001 could not be held in these towns/cities of Gujarat State on account of national calamity. Source: Office of the Registrar General of India. (Population totals for India & States for the census of India – 2001).

The number of metropolitan cities having million plus population has increased to 35 as per 2001 census. The names of such cities are as follows:

Cities having million (+) Population in 2001

Rank	Urban Agglomeration/City	Population (Lakhs)
1	Greater Mumbai	163.7
2	Kolkata	132.2
3	Delhi	127.9
4	Chennai	64.2
5	Bangalore	56.9
6	Hyderabad	55.3
7	Ahmedabad	45.2
8	Pune	37.5
9	Surat	28.1
10	Kanpur	26.9
11	Jaipur	23.2
12	Lucknow	22.7
13	Nagpur	21.2
14	Patna	17.1
15	Indore	16.4
16	Vadodara	14.9
17	Bhopal	14.5
18	Coimbatore	14.5
19	Ludhiana	14.0
20	Kochi	13.5
21	Visakhapatnam	13.3
22	Agra	13.2
23	Varanasi	12.1
24	Madurai	11.9
25	Meerut	11.7
26	Nashik	11.5
27	Jabalpur	11.2
28	Jamshedpur	11.0
29	Asansol	10.9
30	Dhanbad	10.6
31	Faridabad	10.5
32	Allahabad	10.5
33	Amritsar	10.1
34	Vijaywada	10.1
35	Rajkot	10.0
	Total	1078.8