"Trends and Pattern of Urbanization in India: An Inter State Analysis "

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has been a world wide phenomenon in the twenty first century. Though the level of urbanization in terms of the proportion of urban population (27.7% in 2001) to the total is low in India, in absolute terms, India's urban population (285 millions in 2001) is the second largest in the world, after China. The present study aims to study the trends, growth rate of urbanization and pattern of population concentration by urban size classes across major states of India in recent decades (1981-2001) based on census data. The levels of urbanization were high in industrially as well as economically developed states. The pace of urban population has high in backward states. An over whelming proportion of urban population inhabited in class I cities.