The urban agglomeration of Delhi has for the first time overtaken that of Mumbai, a TOI analysis of census data shows.
NEW DELHI – The urban agglomeration (UA) of Delhi has for the first time overtaken that of Mumbai, a TOI analysis of just-released census data shows. Close to 22 million people now live in Delhi’s extended urban sprawl, while Mumbai’s sprawl is home to just under 21 million.
The census defines a UA as “a continuous urban spread constituting a town and its adjoining outgrowths”. However, while the census office uses data across districts to designate an urban agglomeration, it does not go across state lines, leading to a misleading situation in which the Delhi UA does not include several major satellites.
TOI added Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad to the Delhi UA population to arrive at a figure of 21.7 million people in the capital’s UA. It is these satellites, in fact, which tell the real story because some of them more than doubled their numbers in the past decade, driving Delhi’s explosion.
