A Study in Population Growth and Characteristics of Patna Urban Agglomeration

Abstract

The study of population growth and demographic characteristics of a city in the spatio-temporal
framework provide scope to understand evolutionary processes of an urban settlement. The present work
has examined the urban agglomeration, in geographic perspective, which constitutes a significant component of Indian urban scenario. In comparison to the global urban scenario, India's lower urbanisation
contains arelatively large proportion of the urban population in its metropolises and urban agglomerations. Patna, the capital of Bihar, has witnessed multiple political, economic, social and religious movements for several centuries which gradually resulted ina diverse pattern of growth and a complex demographic structure. The city has grown linearly along the southern bank of river Ganga, but under the
influence of recent global urbanisation trend, past few decades, it is experiencing the growth in a haphazard manner. The study uses the secondary sources of data.Census of India data from different decades viz.
1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 has been used to examine the sequential change in population growth
and demographic characteristics. Attempts are made to analyse the correlation between literacy and sex
ratio as well as literacy and working population since these are the prominent indicators of urban and
social development. Spearman rank difference method has been used to get the coefficient of correlation.
Final administrative map down to ward level has been prepared using raw maps made available by
different authorities and government reports. The thematic maps have been prepared using census data.The
present work is an endeavour to understand impact and causes of sequential population growth and
demographic characteristics of Patna urban agglomeration using descriptive as well as geoinformatics
approach of study.