DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

The Study of population distribution is basic factor to understand the nature of a region and it shows the human adoption to his natural environment. In present study an attempt has been made to analyze the distribution of population in Himachal Pradesh from 1981-2011. The district constitutes the basic unit of observation. The base of present study is secondary data collected from the Directorate of Census Operations, Shimla for two reference periods i.e. 1981 and 2011. The percentage distribution has been used to show the overall distribution of population while, Location Quotient and Concentration Index has been calculated to know about the degree of concentration of population in rural and urban areas. Himachal Pradesh is among the one of less populous states of India and share only 0.57% of country population (As per 2011). The study shows that the distribution of population in Himachal Pradesh is highly uneven. The three districts namely Kangra, Mandi and Shimla together share 26.62 per cent area of state but supports cumulatively 48.42 per cent population of the states. On other side, it has been observed that the tribal districts namely Lahual-Spiti and Kinnaur constitutes 36.36 per cent areas of state but supports merely 1.69 per cent state’s population. By comparison, in relation to nature of residence in rural and urban areas, majority of population i.e. 89.97 per cent of study area residing in rural areas and merely 10.03 per cent in urban areas. However, there has been remarkable variations in distribution of population with in rural and urban areas. The results of both Location Quotient and concentration index shows that higher concentration of rural population was observed in Kangra district followed by Mandi district, while the sparse concentration of rural population has been recorded in Shimla followed by Solan district. On contrary, the higher concentration of urban population was recorded in Shimla and Solan district of the study area whereas, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Chamba, Kullu and Una district have lower concentration of urban population. Notably, the distribution of population shows that a contagious belt of districts extents from northwest to southeast direction in middle and southern parts of Himachal Pradesh is highly populated as compare to northern and north eastern parts of state.