Mumbai Witnessed 6 Pct Fall in Population

Bangalore: Mumbai recorded its slowest population growth in the last decade. The population of the city shrunk by 5.75 percent from 2001 to 2011, recording the sharpest drop in south Mumbai since 1901, revealed a detailed analysis of the latest Census data.

The city’s population plunged 6 percent in last decade. Though the suburbs added 8.01 percent more people in the same 10-year-period, their growth was the slowest since the 1920s. While some attribute the decline in population growth to people preferring smaller families, others say it is the saturation of the financial capital, weighed down as it is with disappearing job opportunities and shrinkage of affordable homes. The Census is yet to release migration-related data which could offer more insights.

P Arokiasamy of the International Institute for Population Sciences, an autonomous institute under the Union ministry of health and family welfare said "This is historically the lowest population growth in the island city. In the suburbs too, the rapidly declining trend indicates that population growth there too would hit zero or touch negative in the next decade," as reported by Economic Times.

Demographers are of the opinion that Mumbai's people shifts are in keeping with global trends where population expectedly hits the highest point at the budding stages of development and subsequently falls. The city's population peaked till the fifties, with the suburbs experiencing exponential growth between the 1950s and 1980s.