Census city classes
Also called: Class I city, Town size classes · Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Census city classes are the way the Census of India groups towns by population size. There are six classes:
- Class I: 1,00,000 (1 lakh) people and above
- Class II: 50,000–99,999
- Class III: 20,000–49,999
- Class IV: 10,000–19,999
- Class V: 5,000–9,999
- Class VI: below 5,000
The classes show how a country's town population is spread from the biggest towns to the smallest. In India, about 70% of urban people live in Class I cities. This is why India's town system is called top-heavy: most of the people are in the top class.
Example
In Census 2011, Greater Mumbai (Maharashtra) had about 18.4 million people, so it was a Class I city. A town with just over 1 lakh people also falls in Class I. This shows how wide this one band is. At the other end, Gangotri Nagar Panchayat in Uttarakhand has only about 110 people, which puts it in Class VI.
Don't confuse with
- Million-plus city and megacity: These are separate labels for the very largest places. A million-plus city has 10 lakh or more people (53 in 2011). A megacity has 1 crore or more (three in 2011). Both are only small parts of Class I.
- Statutory town and census town: These decide whether a place counts as urban. Size classes only sort places that are already urban, by how many people they have.