Definition
The data in tables on Houses, Household Amenities and Assets 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. In the Census of India 2001, the definition of urban area adopted is as follows:
a. All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc.
b. A place satisfying the following three criteria simultaneously: i. a minimum population of 5,000; ii. at least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits; and iii. a density of population of at least 400 per sq. km. (1,000 per sq. mile).
For identification of places which would qualify to be classified as 'urban' all villages, which, as per the 1991 Census had a population of 4,000 and above, a population density of 400 persons per sq. km. and having at least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural activity were considered. To work out the proportion of male working population referred to above against b)(ii), the data relating to main workers were taken into account. Apart from these, the outgrowths (OGs) of cities and towns have also been treated as urban under 'Urban Agglomerations': Examples of out-growths are railway colonies, university campuses, port areas, military camps, etc. that may have come up near a statutory town or city but within the revenue limits of a villages or villages contiguous to the town or city.
Each such individual area by itself may not satisfy the demographic criteria laid down at (b) above to qualify it to be treated as an independent urban unit but may deserve to be clubbed with the towns as a continuous urban spread. Thus, the town level data, wherever presented, also includes the data for outgrowths of such towns.
City
Towns with population of 1,00,000 and above are called cities
