Urban Growth in India

Total urban population in India has increased more than ten times from 26 million in 1901 to 285 million in 2001 whereas total population has increased less than five times from 238 million to 1027 million from 1901 to 2001 respectively. In the same fashion the number of town had also increased from 1916 in 1901 to 2422 in 1951 and then to 4689 in 1991. About three-fold increase has been noticed for percentage of total urban population in Class-I city over the decades (1901 to 1991). While there was only one million plus city (Kolkata) in 1901 in India it became 23 in 1991 and currently it is 35 according to 2001 census. Total population also increased in the million plus cities from 1.51 million in 1901 to 70.7 million in 2001, almost a fifty fold increase.

Source: Census data