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Rural Bihar's mind is on the state's urbanscape that encompasses 139 statutory towns and 60 census or non-statutory towns. As a result, the state's rural population has decreased over the last one decade, resulting in a rise of the urban population.
The Provisional Population Totals pertaining to the 2011 census, which were released on Friday, show that a significant segment of the state's rural population has not only been migrating to metros and towns outside Bihar, but also to big, medium and small towns within the state.
The joint director of Census operations, A K Saxena, said that the state's rural population had decreased from 89.50% of the total population in 2001 to 88.70% in the current census round- a marginal decline of 0.80%.
On the other hand, the urban population has increased from 10.50% in 2001 to 11.30% in 2011 - an increase of 0.80%, Saxena added. The state's total population is 10.38 crore, including 9.20 crore rural population and 1.17 crore urban population.
Significantly, 14 districts have provided the pull factor for migration within the state. The total urban population of these districts in descending order is: Patna (25.10 lakh), Bhagalpur (6 lakh), Gaya (5.75 lakh), Begusarai (5.67 lakh), Muzaffarpur (4.67 lakh), Nalanda (4.57 lakh), Rohtas (4.27 lakh), East Champaran (3.99 lakh), West Champaran (3.93 lakh), Bhojpur (3.88 lakh), Munger (3.84 lakh), Darbhanga (3.80 lakh), Saran (3.52 lakh), and Purnia (3.40 lakh).
Four districts have urban population less than three lakh - Katihar (2.73 lakh), Vaishali (2.32 lakh), Aurangabad (2.35 lakh) and Nawada (2.15 lakh). While 14 other districts have urban population of less than two lakh, the remaining six districts have less than one lakh urban people.
Saxena said that the town with highest decadal growth is Begusarai, while the town with the lowest decadal growth in the state is Paharpur, counted as census town, in Katihar district.
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