More Than Half Of Mizo Population Lives in Urban Areas

Aizawl, Aug 17 : Nearly 52 per cent of Mizoram’s population of a little more than 10 lakhs is living in urban areas.

Mizoram’s population, according to the provisional population totals for Census 2011, is 10,91,014, of which 5,29,037 (48.49 per cent) are living in rural areas and 5,61,977 (51.52 per cent) are living in urban areas.

According to provisional population totals paper-II volume-I, released by Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachuau here today, the rural population has increased by 81,470 and that of urban by 1,20,971 during the last ten years.

The decadal growth rates in rural and urban areas have been 18.20 per cent and 27.43 per cent.

The state capital district Aizawl has registered the highest urban population with 3,12,837 people living in the city while Mamit district has seen the lowest urban population at 14,809.

Lawngtlai district in southern Mizoram has seen the highest rural population with 96,555 people living in villages while Saiha district also in south has the lowest rural population at 31,301.

Though gender imbalance in the population remains in Mizoram, it has seen improvement in the sex ratio which has grown from 935 in 2001 to 975 in 2011.

Sex ratio for the age group 0-6 has also increased from 964 in 2001 to 971 in 2011 and that of seven years and above also grown from 930 in 2001 to 976 in 2011.

The increase in rural areas has been 27 points from 923 in 2001 to 950 in 2011 and that of urban has been 52 points from 948 in 2001 to 1000 in 2011. While Aizawl district has recorded the highest sex ratio in total at 1009 and in urban at 1028, Saiha district has registered the highest sex ratio in rural at 984, the reports said.

However, 91,755 (55.42 per cent) of the state s child population in the age group of 0-6 (1,65,536) are living in rural areas, compared to 73,781 (44.57 per cent) living in urban.

Though the child population as a whole has increased both in rural and urban areas, the proportion of child population to the total population in the age group of 0-6 has slightly declined to 15.17 per cent in 2011 from 16.18 per cent in 2001, the report said.

Among the districts, only Serchhip has witnessed a decline in child population, from 9,108 to 9,082.

The child sex ratio has also increased from 964 in 2001 to 971 in 2011, with one point in rural areas and 15 point in urban areas, the report added. Mizoram has witnessed a decadal growth rate of 22.78 per cent in 2001-2011, compared to 28.82 per cent growth rate during 1991 to 2001.

This is a 6.04 per cent decline in growth rate. Mizoram has 975 females per 1000 males and the density is 52 people per square kilometer.

As many as 847,592 people in Mizoram, of which 438,949 are males and 408,643 are females, are literate which constitute 91.58 per cent of the state s population, pushing the state down to number three below Lakshadweep (92.28 per cent) and Kerala (93.91 per cent).

The urban literacy rate stands at 98.10 per cent while that of rural is 84.31 per cent. Attaining 98.76 per cent literacy rate, Serchhip district is the highest among the districts in India.

The urban literacy rate in Serchhip is recorded as 99.09 per cent to be the highest among the eight districts and Mamit district has recorded the lowest urban literacy rate at 92.63 per cent.

The highest rural literacy rate is also seen in Serchhip district with 98.43 per cent while Lawngtlai district has registered the lowest rural literacy rate at 59.87 per cent.

Female literacy rate in Mizoram is 89.40 per cent, a slight increase from 3.97 per cent in 2001 to 4.32 per cent in 2011, against male literacy rate of 93.72 per cent.

The state’s population, which included 5,52,339 males 5,38,675 females, accounted for 0.09 per cent of India s total population, according to the report.