Data from Census 2011 shows that in Tamil Nadu, more Christians and Muslims live in urban areas, whereas their percentage is smaller in rural areas.
While 3.72 crore (51.6%) of the State’s total population of 7.21 crore live in rural areas, 3.49 crore (48.40%) reside in urban areas.
Among Hindus, the rural population is 54.68 per cent (3.45 crore) as 2.86 crore live in urban areas.
Among Muslims, the rural population is 23.5 per cent (9.93 lakh) and the urban population 76.5 per cent (32.35 lakh). The stats for Christians in rural areas is 36.18 per cent (15.98 lakh) while 63.82 per cent (28.19 lakh) live in urban areas.
Commenting on this, Bernard D Sami of Loyola College said, “Tamil Nadu is one of the more urbanised states, with nearly 50 per cent people living in cities and towns. Literacy level is high among Christians and many of them are found in the teaching profession. In the last two generations, many of them have found places in the IT and media sectors. These jobs are found more in urban areas. That could be why the urban population of Christians is higher.”
Even in the past, Muslims and Christians were mostly concentrated in urban areas, pointed out N Audinarayana, former Head of the Department of Sociology and Population Studies, Bharathiar University.
“The main reason is their occupations. Agriculture and related works are mainly handled by Hindus. Muslims and Christians are not agriculture-based communities. They preferred service-based jobs,” he said.
“Another reason is that more areas have been categorised as urban in the 2011 census. Naturally, the overall urban population will show an increase when compared with the 2001 data. There is also the possibility that some areas with Muslim and Christian concentration were categorised as urban in 2011,” he added.