India : Urbanization (Part – II)

Thus, descending order of in terms of total urban population of is:

Maharashtra > West Bengal > Andhra Pradesh > Gujarat. While, descending order of these states in terms of percent- age of urban population is:

Maharashtra > Gujarat > Andhra Pradesh > West Bengal.

Hence, according to total urban population option (b) is the right answer but according to urban population percentage none of the given options is correct.

Hence, according to 2011 Census, West Bengal has the lowest level of urbanization (%) among the given States.

Tamil Nadu        -  48.4%

Kerala                 -  47.7%

Maharashtra     - 45.2%

Gujarat              -  42.6%

The above sequence was also the same as per the provisional 2011 Census data.

Maharashtra    -  5594

Punjab              -   4136

Tamil Nadu     -    2561

West Bengal    -    5683

Thus, the West Bengal has the highest urban density among these States.

Note: If the urban density in the question refers to the percentage of urban population, then the answer to this question will be Tamil Nadu (the highest 48.4% among the States in question), whereas if the urban density in the question means the percentage of urban area in total area, even then the answer to this question will be Tamil Nadu (the highest 10.5 percent among the given States in question).

Arunachal Pradesh      -    22.9%

Sikkim                            -    25.2%

Bihar                               -    11.3%

Nagaland                       -    28.9%

Note: Bihar has the second lowest percentage of urban population in India after Himachal Pradesh

Tripura                         -  26.2%

Sikkim                          -  25.2%

Arunachal Pradesh    -  22.9%

Himachal Pradesh     -  10.0%

Actually, Himachal Pradesh recorded lowest percentage of urban population among all States in India.

Urbanization in India
India along with China and Nigeria are the most rapidly urbanizing countries as they account for 35% of world urban population growth projected for the 2018-2050 period.

In 2018 a large number of India's cities had a population of between 300,000 and 1 million inhabitants. There are 120 medium-sized cities of such population size and only five urban settlements with 20 million or more inhabitants.

In India, the urban population amounts to 461 million people. This number is growing by 2.3 percent each year. By 2031, 75 percent of India's national income is estimated to come from cities.

Providing the necessary urban infrastructure is the big challenge as 70 to 80 percent of the infrastructure that will be needed by 2050 has not been built yet, and the estimated investment gap amounts to approximately 827 billion US dollars.