One of the most striking findings of census 2011 is that for the first time since 1921, India's urban population has gone up by more than its rural population. At 833 million, India’s rural population is 90.6 million greater than what it was a decade ago whereas urban population has increased by 91 million during last decade. The census provides three possible causes for the urban population to have risen by more than the rural: migration, natural increase in population and inclusion of new areas as urban. But this observation has been made in a census in which the decadal growth percentage of population records the sharpest decline since independence. Further considering inclusion of new areas under ‘Urban’, the number of ‘statutory towns’ has gone up by a mere 241 since 2001 whereas during preceding decade they rose by 813, or more than three times the number in 2011 census. Hence natural increase and inclusion of new areas as urban cannot account for this higher increase in urban population as compared to rural.