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Government Of Assam Housing & Urban Affairs Directorate of Town and Country Planning

General Urbanization

  • Urbanisation in Assam

    Assam has the largest urban population of 4.3 million (Census 2011) amongst the North-eastern States. Guwahati has about 0.9 million urban population, while the other large cities of the state are Nagaon (population 116,355), Dibrugarh (population 138,661) and Silchar (population 172,709). This indicates that other than the concentration of more than 25% urban population of Assam in Guwahati and surrounding urban agglomeration, Assam has a well distributed urban population across the state. The state’s level of urbanization is 14 per cent in the Census 2011, which is a 1.2 percentage point increase over the Census 2001 urbanization level of 12.9 per cent. However, it is lower than the all-India annual rate of urbanization which is 2.82 per cent per annum in 2001-2011 (Source: Population Census of India, 2011 from the population census website: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/PPT_2.html)

    As per the percentage of urban population to total population in Census 2011, the districts of Assam are ranked as follows:

    Rank in 2011DistrictPercentage of Urban PopulationPercentage of Urban Population
      20112001
    1Kamrup Metropolitan82.980.23
    2DimaHasao28.731.60
    3Jorhat20.117.15
    4Tinsukia20.019.47
    5Dibrugarh18.419.28
    6Cachar18.213.94
    7Bongaigaon13.815.87
    8Goalpara13.78.14
    9Nagaon13.012.2
    10KarbiAnglong11.811.30
    11Nalbari10.73.99
    12Dhubri10.412.29
    13Sivsagar9.69.24
    14Kamrup9.44.43
    15Golaghat9.28.54
    16Karimganj9.17.33
    17Sonitpur8.910.56
    18Lakhimpur8.87.33
    19Barpeta8.79.10
    20Morigaon7.74.89
    21Chirang7.45.77
    22Hailakandi7.38.12
    23Dhemaji7.06.79
    24Kokrajhar6.26.11
    25Darrang6.15.49
    26Udalguri4.54.37
    27Baksa1.30.00

    Source: Provisional Population Totals, Paper 2, Vol 2 of 2011 Census, Chapter IV, pp.48

    The total number of Urban Agglomeration/Town has increased from 110 in Census 2001 to 189 in Census 2011. The urbanization of Assam in the last decade is encapsulated in the following table:

    Census YearTotal UAs/TownsTotal PopulationTotal Urban PopulationPercent Urban Population
    200111026655528343924012.90
    201118931169272438875614.08

    Source: Provisional Population Totals, Paper 2, Vol 2 of 2011 Census, Chapter IV, pp.49

    There are a total of 97 Notified towns in Assam. This excludes the Census towns, which do not fall under the jurisdiction of T&CP.The summary of their size-class is given in the following table:

    Class-sizePopulationNo of towns
    Class I towns1 lakh and above3
     Class-II towns50000 to 999999
    Class III towns20000 to 4999923
    Class IV towns10000 to 1999933
    Class V towns 5000 to 999917
    Class VI townsBelow 500010
    TOTAL Statutory Towns95 (excluding Guwahati M.Corp)

    * TC – Town Committee, MB- Municipal Board