Delhi is swiftly turning into an urban megacity with decrease in rural population by more than 55 per cent since the last decade.

This was revealed by New Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday while releasing Delhi Statistical Hand Book 2011 bought out by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, government of New Delhi.

The total population of Delhi is 1.68 crore with around 1.63 crore urban population and 0.05 crore rural population.

This is the 36th issue which contains data relating to various socio-economic parameters under 23 broad chapters. The report reveals that urban population in capital grew by more than 26 per cent. The highest population of 21.79 per cent is in the North-West district, whereas the lowest 0.80 per cent is in New Delhi district. The city witnessed decrease in population in Central and New Delhi districts during the last decade whereas the population has gone up in all other seven districts.

The highest decadal growth has been observed in South-West district with 30.62 per cent rise while New Delhi had negative growth of 25.35 per cent as per the provisional results of 2011 Census.



Dikshit stated that there were 86.34 per cent literates in Delhi during 2010-11. The New Delhi district has the highest rate of literacy which is 89.38 per cent of the total population whereas the lowest rate of literacy is North-East district.

Around literacy percentage of women and men in Delhi is 80.99 per cent and 92.22 per cent respectively. In rural Delhi, the percentage comes to 79.65 per cent and in urban Delhi it is 87.06 per cent.

The report reveals that the per capita income of Delhi at current prices was Rs 1,16,886 during 2009-10. It has increased by Rs 13,446 in comparison to the income in 2008-09.