Urbanization Trend in Nepal

Abstract

Though urbanization is a symbol of modernization which brings changes in economy, division of labour, production of goods, availability of modern urban amenities, urban regions in Nepal are like rural in nature. This study has been carried out to analyze the trend of urbanization from the first scientific census 1952/054 to the latest one in 2021. This study is descriptive type and based on secondary data. Periodic census, CBS publications, Nepal urban development strategy 2017, world urbanization prospect 2018 and other scholarly articles have been used to prepare this paper. Data have been presented in tables, trend line graph, and bar graph. The 1952/054 census reveals that 2.9 percent population resides in 10 urban areas. After 50 years in 2001, urban population reached up to 13.9% with 6.65 percent urban growth rate during the year. Political decision and reclassification of urban areas increased urban population 27.2% by the year 2014; and 66.2% by the year 2021 with 293 urban areas. This dramatic change in the size of urban population lacks urban amenities set by local government operation act 2017. The urbanization level of Nepal is very low by all standards but growth has been rapid in recent years. Urban area of Nepal are facing deficiencies of basic urban infrastructures and facilities such as drinking water, solid waste management, sanitation, environmental pollution, housing, transportation facilities and shortage of energy. Further research might be conducted on this area focusing on the comparative study on urbanization and existing urban pre-requisites of urbanization as per the standard norms. This area attracts further research on providing urban amenities to rural areas as an alternative model of urbanization. This research reveals increasing urbanization trends of Nepal including recent census data and urban amenities which is different from other similar previous research studies.