Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu releases Provisional Population Totals for Rural Urban Distributions of Census 2011 for Himachal Pradesh. As per Census 2011 population of the State is 68,56,509. The rural population is 61,67,805 and urban is 6,88,704. There are 56 Statutory Towns and 3 Census Towns in the State in the urban area and the rural area is spread in 20,690 villages across 117 tehsils/ sub-tehsils in 12 districts of the State.
The urban population of the State is 10.04% of the total population which in the previous Census 2001 was 9.8%. The growth of urban population between last census and present census is 15.64% compared to overall growth of the population in the State which is 12.81%. The sex ratio of number of females per 1000 males in urban areas is 853 and for the rural area, this ratio is 988. The overall sex ratio for the State is 974. The child sex ratio between 0-6 years for urban area is 878 and for rural area 909 compared to overall child sex ratio for the State which is 906.
The literacy percentage for urban areas is 91.39% and for rural area 82.91% compared to overall literacy rate of 83.78% for the State. In the urban area the literacy rate for men is 93.72% and for women 88.66% compared to 90.48% for men and 75.33% for women in the rural area. The overall literacy rate for the State for men is 90.83% and for women 76.60%. The gap in male female literacy rate in urban area has come down to 5.06% from 13.28% in 1981 Census. For rural area also this gap has come down from 22% in 1981 to 15.15% during present census. District Shimla is highest in terms of urban population (2,01,500 : 29.26%) followed by district Solan (1,02,078 : 14.82%) and district Kangra (86,359 : 12.54%). The lowest being district Bilaspur (25,126 : 3.65%), Hamirpur (31,413 : 4.56%) and district Chamba (36,191 : 5.25%). The literacy rate in 1971 Census was 32% which went up to 51.2% in 1981, 63.90% in 1991 and 76.48% in 2001 Census. For men, the literacy rate during 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 Census was 43.20%, 64.30%, 75.40% and 85.30% respectively and for women; this rate was 20.20% in 1971, 37.70% in 1981, 52.10% in 1991 and 67.4% in 2001 Census.
Rajwant Sandhu said that there has been a steady improvement in literacy in the State particularly for women which have shown a remarkable improvement from 20.20% in 1971 to 75.33% during the current census. Director Census Balbir Tegta gave a presentation.
