The growth of medium sized towns (with a population ranging from 20,000 to less than 100,000) in India was subjected to a detailed analysis. The basic premise was that growth behaviour of this group of towns, rather of cities or small towns, was a sensitive index to decentralisation of the urban process as well as to a balanced development of a region.

It was discovered that growth rate of these towns was not just moderate; it was moderate to rapid. This signified that medium sized towns were more akin to cities than to small towns in respect of growth pattern.

Among the various factors affecting growth, location of these towns in a particular region was discerned as more critical than their functions or relative size. Their growth was distinctly fast in areas with comparatively low population density, wide spacing of towns and new developmental activities. Here these towns were generally the biggest in their subregional context. The growth behaviour of medium sized towns did confirm dispersal of urbanisation but lack of any consistent relationship between their growth rate and development level of different areas was not in conformity with the hypothesis.