At a time when the rest of the country is experiencing rapid urbanisation, Bihar is seeing a reversal of the trend, and is experiencing de-urbanisation. According to a paper by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), urban Bihar contracted from 11.4 million in 1991 to 8.7 million in 2001, a decline of 23.6 per cent in a decade when the state's population rose by 28.4 per cent. While one reason could be the separation of Jharkhand and the loss of large towns like Ranchi and Dhanbad, CPA's analysis puts Jharkhand back into Bihar and finds there was a 13.19 per cent urbanisation in 2001, which was marginally lower than the 13.38 per cent in 1991.
