Analysis of the trend and inter-regional variation of urbanization in Bangladesh

Abstract

Rangladesh is charaderi~ed hy rapid urbanization, backed by a huge base populalion. It is al.,o ~haraclerized by heavy concenlration of population in a few large cities. The national and regional trends of urbanization in Bangladesh for the la,t three con,ecutive census year, 1981, 1991 and 2001 were studied ill this re,ea,..;h. It revealed that there is con,iderable spatial and temp,-,ral imbalance ,-,f urbani7.ation in I",lh divisional and regi()nal (Iormer di,triel) leveL For example the twenty regi()ns of Bangladesh held the varying levels of urbanizalion ranging fmm about 10% to 60%. AI()ng with thi" regi()nal inequality in the di,tnbution ()f urban population was analyzed using Location Quotient (L.Q.) of different regions and Gini Index. The values of Gini-coefficient, were found 0.314. 0,354 and 0.340 in the year 1981, 1991 and 2001 respectively. It indicates that the urban population distribution is unequal in the twenty regions. The aspects which are closely associaled with le\'el of urbani/ation ,ueh as percenlage of urban land, urban population den,ity, share 01' nalionalurban population and share of national urban land were also studied here. Again the distl'ibution of urban centers according to population size is not uniform. At presel1t Dhaka, the capital and largest city \vith over 9,7 million people, has about 33';', of the total urban population, This study also anal}'zed the trend and nature of urbanization at different hierarchies of urban centers in Bangladesh viz, mega city, statistical metropolitan area, municipality etc Il ,,'as fO\lnd that the rale of gro",th of population is several times higher L11 those urban centers compare to the expansion of urban area, lhu, increa.,ing density of population in these areas. For example during 1991 to 200 I in mega clly Dhaka the decadal variation of population and area were 49.1 percent and 1.34 pereent respectively re",tiling increased den,ity "fpopulation from 4795 perSClllsl8q.km to 7054 persons/sq. km in the ,ame interval of time . .1hi, study was not only limited to the ,tudy of regional variation of urbanization. II explicitly analyzed Mlme ,()ci,,-~conomic ami infra,lruclural factors affectillg this variation With their relative and changing imporlanee in thi, regard. For this purp"se Ri~ariate Correlation Coefficients of the dependent variable i,e. level of urbanization Wilh independenl vanable, were measured lor the lhree consecutive cen.,use,>, It was found that nOll-agricultural activities, level of indu,trialization. percentage of urban land, walcr supply coverage. sanitalion coverage and el~ctricity coverage are strongly positively cOl'related with level of urbanization all along. Morcover, it wa, found that all the faclors ar~ not equally significant ",ilh level of urbanintion all the time. For example thc variables rural-urban migration and literacy rale Were f()und significant in the year 1991 hut in ]981 and 2001 these wcrc found insignilicant. In this study secondary data was used and the main source of data was the various census and annual reporl~ conducted by Bangladesh Burea\l of Statistics (BBS).