(i) Urbanisation refers to development of villages and rural areas into towns with high standard of living and civic amenities.
(ii) The level of urbanisation is measured in terms of percentage of urban population to the total population. The level of urbanisation in India in 2001 was 28 per cent which is quite low in comparison to developed countries.
(iii) Total urban population has increased eleven fold during 20th century. Enlargement of urban centres and emergence of new towns have played a significance role in the growth of urban population and urbanisation in the country.
(iv) After independence large number of towns have been developed as administrative head-quarters. Some old towns also developed as satellite towns around metropolitan cities such as Ghaziabad, Gurugram, around Delhi. A large number of medium and small-towns have developed all over the country.
(v) According to census of India, urban centres are classified into six classes—class 1 town, metropolitan cities, mega cities etc. Majority of metropolitan cities and mega cities are urban agglomerations. In the evidence of data, more than 60 per cent of urban population in India lives in class I towns. Out of 423 cities, 35 cities/urban agglomeration are metropolitan cities. Six of them are mega cities, 21% of urban population lives in these mega cities. Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are the mega cities.
