Previous Year Question

According to Census 2011, the urban population densities of the States given in the options were approximately—

West Bengal — 5,683 persons/sq. km
Maharashtra — 5,594 persons/sq. km
Punjab — 4,136 persons/sq. km
Tamil Nadu — 2,561 persons/sq. km.

Urban Population Density refers to the urban population of a State relative to its urban area per square kilometre. It must therefore be distinguished from the percentage of the population living in urban areas.

According to Census 2011, West Bengal had an urban population of about 29.1 million spread over approximately 5,119 sq km of urban area. This gave it an urban population density of about 5,683 persons per sq km.

Tamil Nadu can create an important confusion here. In 2011, Tamil Nadu was among India's most urbanised major States, meaning that a large proportion of its total population lived in urban areas. However, the level of urbanisation measures the percentage of the total population that is urban, whereas urban density measures the average number of people living on each square kilometre of urban land. These are different indicators.

Similarly, Maharashtra had a larger total urban population than West Bengal, but a larger urban population does not automatically imply a higher urban density because the extent of urban land also enters the calculation. Urban population, percentage urban and urban density should therefore be treated as three distinct measures.