State-Wise Distribution Of Settlement Structure: The distribution of these ‘villages’ also shows significant variation across states, bringing out the importance of regionally aggregated data, which can be masked in national averages.

When the two states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are compared, Tamil Nadu accounts for the largest proportion of “towns”, while Maharashtra accounts for the largest proportion of “urban populations”.

Although Maharashtra accounted for only 6.5% of the country’s towns, it housed nearly 12% of the country’s urban population (around 54,000 persons per town, on average). Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, had nearly 14% of all towns in India but housed 8% of the total urban population (about 6,300 persons per town, on average). So in Maharashtra, people are distributed in a smaller number of large towns, while in Tamil Nadu they are distributed in a larger number of small towns.

Indian Institute for Human Settlements’ ‘Urban India 2015: Evidence’

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