An Analysis of Population Growth Trends in Urban Areas

India is the world’s most populous country, yet also one of the least urban. It has long been known that India’s official estimates of urban percentages conflict with estimates derived from alternative conceptions of urbanization.This paper tries to draw attention on the increasing urbanization trend in India. It tries to highlight that though presently, in absolute terms, the urban population is relatively much lesser than the rural population, still we cannot afford to overlook the shifting rural to urban population trends. The share of urban population of the total is constantly increasing. It is estimated that close to the year 2050 more people in India would live in urban areas rather than rural. This makes the time apt for looking into the urban India challenges separately, strategising afresh, with focus on urban issues and not merely extending the existing development strategies, with less focus on urban issues. Also, this paper tries to explore that if population share of urban is increasing, population in which class of cities are increasing the most? It is expected that this information would help priorities our urban centric development strategies.