Cities In Punjab

Generally we are asked the question 'How many cities are there in Punjab?', the correct answer is that there are total 168 cities in Punjab. Some other answers could be 143, 217 and 237 which are not completely incorrect and have some weight. To have a complete understading, continue reading the next sections.

There is no rigid sharp line between a city and a town or between a town and a village. Cities or Towns notified by the government are called Statutary Towns. In these towns, an urban local body like Municipal Council is formed. In Punjab, there are three types of urban local bodies - Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat. Municipal Councils are further devided into three categories that is Class-1, Class-2 and Class-3. A town with the population above one lakh is called a city. But normally the word City or Town is used interchangably.
At present there are total 168 statutary towns in Punjab and another 69 census towns. Thus there are total 237 towns (or say cities) in Punjab. The list of statutary towns include 13 Municipal Corporations, 93 Municipal Councils, 59 Nagar Panchayats and 3 Cantonment Boards.

Bathinda with 21 towns is the district with the largest number of towns. Pathankot, the district with lowest number of towns have only two towns Pathankot and Sujanpur. If you are looking for information about districts of Punjab, then you can get more details on this page related to districts of Punjab.

Census Towns In Punjab

According to the 2011 census, there were total 217 towns in Punjab. Alongwith the 143 statutory towns (ST), it also includes 74 census towns (CT). A census town is not a notified town according to state government (treated as a village in the records of state govt), but it meets the definition of town according to the census department. In the years after census survey, 25 new statutary towns have been notified by the state government and thus number of statutary towns have increased to 168. Amongst this list of 25 new towns, 5 are from the census towns, thus decreasing the number of census towns fron 74 to 69.
City Population or Urban Population - According to census of 2011, the total urban population or population of cities of Punjab is 1.04 crore. This is 37.5% of the total population of the state. During the period of 2001 to 2011, the population of cities of Punjab has increased by 25.8%, whereas the overall increase in the population of Punjab is 13.9%. The migration of people from rural areas to cities and also rapid urbanization of rural areas around cities is the main contribution factor in the rapid growth of population in the urban areas. The city wise population of Punjab is given in the next sections of this article.

Smart Cities In Punjab

In August 2015, Urban Development Ministry, Government of India released a list of 98 cities to be developed as smart cities. There are 3 cities from Punjab which are included this list and names of these smart cities, alongwith the total population, are given below:

1. Ludhiana - Ludhiana is the largest city (by population) of Punjab and its total population is 16,13,878. The city is popular for its hosiery, textile and cycle parts industry and is also called as Manchester of India.
2. Amritsar - This is the second most populous city of Punjab and has a total population of 11,32,761. Most sacred shrine of sikhs and a world famous tourist places Shri Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple) is situated in this city. The famous Wagah Border is also situated at a distance of few kilometers. For more information, check this page about Punjab Tourist Places.
3. Jalandhar - This is the third most populous city in the state having a total population 8,73,725. The city is famous all over the world for its sports goods manufacturing industry.

For the smart cities mission, Punjab government submitted a list of total 6 cities which also included Mohali, Patiala and Bathinda and out of these six cities, the three cities mentioned above were selected. Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and a union territory, is also included in this list of smart cities.

Major Cities In Punjab

A list of major cities of Punjab is given in this section. There are 3 cities which have a population of more than 5 lakh and there are 16 cities with a population of above 1 lakh. The list of top 20 cities, in order of their population, is given below:

List of Cities in Punjab

A list of all the statutary towns is given below. The district, population of the city and the type of urban local body is also given in the table.
Abbrevations Used - a) M Corp. = Municipal Corporation, b) M Cl - Municipal Council, c) NP - Nagar Panchayat, d) CB - Cantonment Board, e) OG - Out Growth

List of Census Towns

There are total 69 census towns in Punjab. According to census 2011 data, there were 74 such towns, out of these five towns namely Amargarh, Bhikhiwind, Kot Ise Khan, Lalru and Talwara have been notified as Nagar Panchayats. The list of all the census towns is given below (the serial number is continued from 168, the number of notified towns as given in above list):