Distribution of population and growth rate

Distribution of Population and Growth Rate in Bihar. At 00.00 hours of 1st March, 2001, the state of Bihar, with an area of 94,163 sq kms approximately, had a population of 8,28,78,796 persons. Till 1991 Census, the composite state of Bihar was the second most populous state in the country (containing slightly more than 10% of the country’s population), next only to Uttar Pradesh. However, after bifurcation of the state of Bihar and creation of the new state of Jharkhand, the rank of Bihar among the states of India has slipped down to third, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra occupying the first and the second position respectively. The following statement shows the relative position of Bihar among the 28 States and 7 Union Territories of the country: The following statement shows the population distribution, percentage decadal growth rate, sex-ratio and density of population for Bihar and India. FIGURES AT A GLANCE FOR INDIA AND BIHAR Population distribution, Percentage decadal growth rate, Sex-ratio and Population density. India/State Population 2001 Persons Males Females 1.INDIA 1,02,70,15,247 53,12,77,078 49,57,38,169 2.BIHAR 8,28,78,796 4,31,53,96 43,97,24,832 Percentage Decadal Growth Rate Sex-Ratio(Females/1000 Males)Population Densitypersq.km. 1991-01 1991 2001 1991 2001* India 21.34 927 933 267 324 Bihar 28.43 907 921 685 880 The distribution of population in relation to the districts, which are the main units of administration in the state as well as the country, can be seen from the table below. It is a common phenomenon that there are wide variations in almost every state in respect of area and population among the districts. In Statement-1 below, all the districts in the state have been ranked in order of their population: From the point of population distribution, the three top districts in Bihar are Patna (5.68%), East Champaran (4.75%) and Muzaffarpur (4.52%). These three districts have retained their rank and position vis-à-vis 1991 Census. Patna is the most populous district of the State. The three districts at the bottom are Sheohar (0.62%), Sheikhpura (0.63%) and Lakhisarai (0.97%). All these three districts are newly created districts, carved out of the old districts of Sitamarhi (Sheohar) and Munger (Sheikhpura and Lakhisarai) after 1991 Census. Sheohar is now the least populous district of the state. The average population of a district in Bihar works out to be 2239967. It is noteworthy that 11 out of the top 13 districts in order of population are from the North Bihar region, Patna and Gaya being the two exceptions which belong to the Bihar Central region.The comparative distribution of population among the districts has been depicted in the diagram presented in this paper.See Table below: STATEMENT – 1Ranking of Districts by Population 2001 Rank in 2001 District Population 2001 Percent to total Population of the State in 2001 1. Patna 47,09,851 5.68 2. East Champaran 39,33,636 4.75 3. Muzaffarpur 37,43,836 4.52 4. Madhubani 35,70,651 4.31 5. Gaya 34,64,983 4.18 6. Samastipur 34,13,413 4.12 7. Darbhanga 32,85,473 3.96 8. Saran 32,51,474 3.92 9. WestChamparan 30,43,044 3.67 10. Vaishali 27,12,389 3.27 21,46,065 3.33 11. Siwan 27,08,840 3.27 21,70,971 3.36 12. Sitamarhi 26,69,887 3.22 20,13,796 3.12 13. Purnia 25,40,788 3.07 18,78,885 2.91 14. Rohtas 24,48,762 2.95 19,17,416 2.97 15. Bhagalpur 24,30,331 2.93 19,09,967 2.96 16. Katihar 23,89,533 2.88 18,25,380 2.83 17. Nalanda 23,68,327 2.86 19,96,257 3.09 18. Begusarai 23,42,989 2.83 18,14,773 2.81 19. Bhojpur 22,33,415 2.69 17,92,771 2.78 20. Gopalganj 21,49,343 2.59 17,04,310 2.64 21. Araria 21,24,831 2.56 16,11,638 2.50 22. Aurangabad 20,04,960 2.42 15,39,988 2.39 23. Nawada 18,09,425 2.18 13,59,694 2.11 24. Supaul 17,45,069 2.11 13,42,841 2.08 25. Banka 16,08,778 1.94 12,92,504 2.00 26. Madhepura 15,24,596 1.84 11,77,706 1.83 27. Jehanaba 15,11,406 1.82 11,74,900 1.82 28. Saharsa 15,06,418 1.82 11,32,413 1.75 29. Buxar 14,03,462 1.69 10,87,676 1.69 30. Jamui 13,97,474 1.69 10,51,527 1.63 31. Kishanganj 12,94,063 1.56 9,84,107 1.53 32. Kaimur 12,84,575 1.55 9,83,269 1.52 33. Khagaria 12,76,677 1.54 9,87,227 1.53 34. Munger 11,35,499 1.37 9,43,583 1.46 35. Lakhisarai 8,01,173 0.97 6,46,395 1.00 36. Sheikhpura 5,25,137 0.63 4,20,260 0.65 37. Sheohar 5,14,288 0.62 3,77,699 0.59 GROWTH RATE OF POPULATION IN DISTRICTS The population of a country or its constituent states keep changing over a period of time. The excess of incidence of births over that of deaths causes an increase in the population of the country or the state and this is termed as natural increase. Migration is another important factor for population variation, though, normally it does not have a substantial effect on the population growth of any country or state. Hence, it is mainly the interaction of births and deaths that alters the population status of any country or state.It is observed that the growth rate has shown very wide fluctuations in the districts over the decades. During 1901-11, while the state and most of its districts have shown an increase in growth rate of their population, the districts of Patna, Nalanda, Bhojpur, Buxar, Kaimur, Rohtas, Saran, Siwan and Gopalganj have shown a decrease in their population size although the decrease has been very nominal in case of Patna and Nalanda. During 1911-21, when the population of the state and most of the districts decreased, there was an increase in population in Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj, West Champaran, East Champaran, Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj districts of north Bihar. From the decade 1921-31 onwards, no district in the state registered a negative growth rate, i.e. decline in population, although fluctuations were noticed in the population growth rate among the districts in all the succeeding decades. From the decade 1951-61, almost all the districts had started showing substantial increase in the growth rate of population. In the decade 1991-2001, as many as 22 districts have recorded population growth rate higher than the state average (28.43%) among which the newly created district of Sheohar ranks first (36.16%). The district with lowest population growth rate during the decade is Nalanda (18.64%) which, in fact, has shown a decline in the population growth rate vis-à-vis 1981-91 (21.73%).