One in 3 Keralites lives in big cities
NEW DELHI: Just 10 years ago, 4% of Kerala'spopulationlived in big cities. Today, more than one in every three of its residents lives in a big city. That's ahigher proportionthan for any other state.
At the national level, the proportion of Indians living in big cities has increased, but not at an exceptional pace. About 13% of Indians now live in 53 cities with populations greater than one million, up from 11% in 35 such cities in 2001. But some states are experiencing a radical transformation in their urban landscapes.
Kerala has confounded demographers, urbanizing far faster in the last 10 years than it was expected to. The state is now almost 50% urban, more urbanized then Maharashtra and just slightly behind TN.
The urban boom has taken place at both ends of the spectrum: there has been a big jump in the number of 'census towns' - villages that grow to the point that they satisfy the definition of a town - as well as in the number of million-plus cities.
In 2011, Kerala had seven million-plus towns - Kochi, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Kollam - up from just one in 2001.
Compare this with Uttar Pradesh, the only state with as many million-plus cities as Kerala in 2011. Only 7% of UP's population lives in these cities, up from 6% in 2001. Of the big states, only Haryana and Bihar have a lower proportion of big city dwellers.
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal round off the Top 5 states in terms of proportion of big city residents with their million-plus cities accounting for more than half their urban populations. These four states, however, have experienced much slower growth in urbanization than Kerala.
Another key trend at the national level is the further skewing of the urban population towards the biggest cities. The number of people living in million-plus cities almost doubled over the last 10 years, while the number of people living in cities with less than one lakh grew at half this pace.
Regards
Shafeeq thalassery
__._,_.___
KERALITES - A moderated eGroup exclusively for Keralites...
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Homepage: www.keralites.net
.
No comments:
Post a Comment