DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2022.v10i10.001

Pages: 453-462

An increase in the number of people living in towns and cities is referred to as urban expansion. It is the result of population concentration in reaction to the availability of a wide range of amenities and services in the city center. Himachal Pradesh, as India's least urbanized state, experienced a significant increase in the number of urban settlements between 1951 and 2011. Understanding the stages of urban development in a country/state can be aided by studying urban growth by size class of towns. As a result, the current paper is a modest attempt to look into Himachal Pradesh's urban growth by size class from 1951. It is based on data of the Census of India from 1951 to 2011. Himachal Pradesh's urban population increased by 4.5 times, from 1.53 lakh in 1951 to 6.88 lakh in 2011. The creation of new towns, which increased the overall number of towns to 59 in 2011 from 29 in 1901, is responsible for a substantial portion of the rise in urban population. The state's urbanization statistics suggest that the state's urban population is growing at a relatively slow pace. The prevalence of smaller towns can be seen in the structure pattern. The state has only one class I town, Shimla. Shimla's primacy among Himachal Pradesh's towns may be seen in the fact that the city accounts for approximately one fifth of the state's total urban population during the research period. In the districts of Kinnaur and Lahul Spiti, there are no towns; these districts are void of any urban population.