Urbanisation in Karnataka: Trend and Spatial Pattern

Karnataka is the seventh largest state in India with 38.67% of urban population as of 2011. With 1 out of every 7 people in Karnataka living in Bangalore, it addresses pertinent questions as to how much of this growth is contributed by various regional pockets. This paper aims to identify regional imbalances in urban growth in Karnataka from 1991 to 2011 at the regional, divisional and district level and to examine the distribution of urban population across cities during the same period. It uses secondary data from the Census of India to compute measures of percent urban population, urban rural growth differential (URGD), Gini coefficient/Lorenz curve and primacy index (PI). Results show that Karnataka exhibits a fluctuating trend of urbanisation with a high regional variation and a high urban primacy. Disparities exists in urban growth with Bangalore being the most urbanized district (90.94%) and Kodagu the least (14.61%). Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts were urbanizing faster than 2.5% in 2001-2011 while Uttara Kannada, Raichur and Gadad have registered very slow growth. Seventy percent of urban population lives in 10% of towns/urban agglomeration, with Bangalore being the primate city (11PI = 3.09). There is positive association between city-size and growth rate during 2001 to 2011. Thus, urbanization in Karnataka reflects lopsided economic developments across the state and needs special attention.