Million-plus city
Also called: Metropolitan city · Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A million-plus city, also called a metropolitan city, is a city or urban agglomeration (UA) with 10 lakh (one million) or more people. A UA is one continuous built-up area. It can be a town with its outgrowths, or two or more towns that touch. India had 35 million-plus cities in 2001 and 53 in Census 2011. In 2011, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala had seven each. Their rising number shows how India's urban population is crowding into the biggest cities.
Example
Greater Mumbai in Maharashtra had about 18.4 million people in 2011, making it India's largest million-plus city. Delhi and Kolkata came next.
Don't confuse with
- Megacity: a UA with 1 crore (10 million) or more people. Every megacity is a million-plus city, but most million-plus cities are not megacities. In 2011 only three were: Greater Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
- Class I city: any town with 1,00,000 or more people. This is a much lower bar than one million.