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Association of urbanisation with demographic dynamics in India

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Abstract

The research paper provides an overview of India’s urbanisation, regional variations, and association with demographic dynamics. The study explores the contributions of the census and statutory towns to urban growth and components of urban growth. The paper examines the impacts of urbanisation on fertility and mortality in India by data collected from the Census of India and the Sample Registration System. The specific purpose of this paper is investigating the impacts of demographic changes and urbanisation in India during the period 1991–2011. The research paper has employed quantitative technical analysis with the help of ordinary least square regression for establishing the relationship of association between urbanisation and socio-demographic variables. The study has endeavored a theoretical model associating the process of urbanisation with the demographic transition. It finds that the process of urbanisation has lead to the reduction of both fertility and mortality rates in India. The smooth decline in fertility and mortality rates in urban areas of India during the 2 decades of 1991–2011 implies the positive contribution of urbanisation. Similarly, the paper argues that to a large extent, various demographic indicators have influenced the process of urbanisation. The study successfully pinpoints that the urbanisation is positively related to the demographic variables of population growth, density, and migration. It also finds positive and significant effects of per capita income and female work participation rate on urbanisation.

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Fig. 1
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Source: Author’s

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Source: Author’s calculation from the census of 1991, 2001, 2011 and Sample Registration System (SRS) data of various years

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Source: Sample Registration System (SRS) Bulletin various year

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Notes

  1. Population of the largest city as a percentage of the total urban population (Hofmann and Wan 2013).

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions and special thanks to Prof. C M Lakshmana, Mr. Azhar Khan C A, Dr. Indrajit Bairagya, Mr. Prajeesh Karonnon, Mr. Ankit Anand, for their moral support and motivation, who derive me to give my best.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Research Centre (PRC), Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, 560072, India

    Raju Sarkar

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  1. Raju Sarkar
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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 12, 13 and 14.

Table 12 Descriptive statistics of the variables
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Table 13 Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix
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Table 14 Variance inflation factors (VIF)
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Sarkar, R. Association of urbanisation with demographic dynamics in India. GeoJournal 85, 779–803 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-09988-y

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