Definition
Rural Urban Areas
The data in this publication are presented separately for rural and urban areas. The unit of classification in this regard is 'town' for urban areas and 'village' for rural areas. Urban areas are comprised of two types of administrative units - Statutory towns and Census towns.
Statutory towns - All administrative units that have been defined by statute as urban like Municipal Corporation, Municipality, Cantonment Board, Notified Town Area Committee, Town Panchayat, Nagar Palika etc. are known as Statutory Towns.
Census Towns - Administrative units satisfying the following three criteria simultaneously are treated as Census Towns:
I) It should have a minimum population of 5,000 persons*
II) At least 75 per cent of the male main working population should have been engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and
III) It should have a density of population of at least 400 persons per sq.km. (1,000 per sq. mile)
*
For the purpose of identification of places that qualify to be classified as 'Census Towns', all villages, with a population of 4000 and above as per the 2001 Census, a population density of 400 persons per sq.km. and having at least 75 per cent of male main working population engaged in non-agricultural activity were considered. The workers engaged in the agricultural activities, namely (a) Cultivators, (b) Agricultural Labourers and (c) Plantation, Livestock, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting and allied activities were excluded for computing the percentage of workers engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
Rural areas- Any administrative area that was not classified as urban (Statutory and Census Town) is treated as a rural area. Generally, revenue village is the basic administrative unit in the census. In the rural frame of Census 2011 there are 6,40,930 villages. There has been an increase of 2,342 villages since Census 2001.
City
Towns with population of 1,00,000 and above are categorized as cities.
