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NepalUrbanization
Urbanization, defined as the percentage of total
population
living in settlements designated as urban areas, generally
was
viewed as closely related to economic development. If the
correlation between urbanization and economic
development--
historically based on the experience of the industrialized
nations-
-is accepted, then Nepal has a long way to go before it
becomes
economically advanced. Nepal was one of the least
urbanized
countries in the world, with only 6.3 percent of its total
population residing in urban areas in 1981. Yet it appears
that the
1971-81 decade experienced a major spurt in urban
population,
increasing by approximately 108 percent, at an annual rate
of more
than 8.4 percent. The urbanization rate in the early 1990s
was
around 8 percent. Nevertheless, only twenty-three
settlements were
designated as urban areas, and only one of these
settlements had a
population above 100,000--the capital city of Kathmandu,
which had
a total population of slightly more than 235,000. Together
with the
other two major urban settlements--Patan (also called
Lalitpur),
which had about 79,800 people, and Bhadgaon (also called
Bhaktapur), with about 48,500 people--the Kathmandu Valley
in the
Hill Region had the largest concentration of the total
urban
population--almost 40 percent.
In terms of the regional distribution of these urban
settlements, the pattern was skewed in favor of the Tarai.
Fourteen
of the twenty-three settlements were found there, the
majority
located in eastern and central Tarai. The Mountain Region
had no
urban settlements. This situation clearly demonstrated
that Nepal
not only remained predominantly rural, but also that the
existing
urban areas were neither well developed nor well connected
in terms
of their geographical distribution. The only real urban
network was
found in the central section--the quadrangle consisting of
Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butawal (and Siddhartha Nagar), and
Hetauda.
Data as of September 1991
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