Rural-Urban Migration in India

Rural Population which Migrated to Urban Areas

25% of the country's poor live in urban areas
31% of the urban population is poor

Traditional rural-urban migration exists in India as villagers seek to improve opportunities and lifestyles. In 1991, 39 million people migrated in rural-urban patterns of which 54% were female. Caste and tribe systems complicate these population movements.

Seasonal urban migration is also evident throughout India in cities like Surant where many migrants move into the city during periods of hardship and return to their native villages for events such as the harvest.

India's largest cities / urban areas

Rank	City / Urban Area	Population
1	Mumbai (Bombay)	16,368,000
2	Kolkata (Calcutta)	13,217,000
3	Delhi	12,791,000
4	Chennai	6,425,000
5	Bangalore	5,687,000
6	Hyderabad	5,534,000
7	Ahmadabad	4,519,000
8	Pune	3,756,000
9	Surat	2,811,000
10	Kanpur	2,690,000
11	Jaipur	2,324,000
12	Lucknow	2,267,000
13	Nagpur	2,123,000
14	Patna	1,707,000
15	Indore	1,639,044
16	Vadodara	1,492,000
17	Bhopal	1,455,000
18	Coimbatore	1,446,000
19	Ludhiana	1,395,000
20	Kochi	1,355,000
21	Visakhapatnam	1,329,000
22	Agra	1,321,000
23	Varanasi	1,212,000
24	Madurai	1,195,000
25	Meerut	1,167,000
26	Nashik	1,152,000
27	Jabalpur	1,117,000
28	Jamshedpur	1,102,000
29	Asansol	1,090,000
30	Dhanbad	1,064,000
31	Faridabad	1,055,000
32	Allahabad	1,050,000
33	Amritsar	1,011,000
34	Vijayawada	1,011,000
35	Rajkot	1,002,000