|
Indian
Cities
With a
population of some 1,027 million people, India is now the
second country in the world, after China, to cross the one
billion mark. The United Nations now estimates that by 2050
India will have overtaken China as the most populous country
in the world. Today, Indians make up 16.7 per cent of the
world’s population with an annual growth rate of close to
two per cent. China's annual population growth is only one
per cent, while the world population is growing at an annual
rate of 1.4 per cent.
In 2001, the sex ratio for the whole of India stood at 933
females to 1,000 males. While this figure constitutes an
improvement to the situation in 1991 when there were 927
females per 1,000 males, the figure is still lower than in
the 1950s. In countries like the US, Russia and Japan there
have been more females than males throughout the 20th
century, while in Bangladesh, China and Pakistan the ratio
between males and females is moving towards parity.
In 2001, India had 35 cities / urban areas with a population
of more than one million people. In total, some 108 million
Indians, or 10.5 per cent of the national population, live
in the country’s 35 largest cities. Mumbai (Bombay) with a
population of more than 16 million is now the world’s
fourth-largest urban area followed by Kolkata (Calcutta) in
fifth place.
Urban slum areas are home to more than 40 million Indians or
22.6 per cent of India’s urban population. More than 600
Indian towns and cities incorporate slum areas. The largest
slum
population
in cities with a population of more than one million is
found in Mumbai (48.9%) and the lowest in Patna (0.25%).
|