The study of human resources is of vital importance from economic point of view for the regional development. Human aspects influence the economic activity and determine the level of consumption and such offer economic and social endeavors. It is necessary to know the quantitative terms of their number of people living in a region at a particular time, the rate at which their number is growing and the composition and distribution of population. The number resource is a labour force which helps in the process of production. This enables the sizeable population of a region to live in condition of comfortable and healthy living. As such it becomes necessary to know the demographic characteristics of the region in quantitative and qualitative terms.

During the last million years a new and incredible thin layer has spread over large part of the earth’s surface at the contact of air, water and land. This layer is spread of man and his work (Dicken and Ppills, 1970). The study of components of population variation and change is known as demography.

The study of human resource is of vital importance both from the point of view of economic development and social welfare. It is particularly important because

The study of growth, distribution and density of population are most important aspect of a region, where one can understand their pattern in regional disparity. Therefore, man becomes a resource of the region and every other resource of the region becomes man’s requirement. Hence, it is needless to say that regional study cannot be completed without study of population growth, distribution and density to harness the resource available in the area. The population growth with variation in density reflects on the existing land use and sprawl.

Sustainable development involves conservation of land and water resources. With the increasing pressure of the ever growing human population, increased living standard and the concomitant activities are exerting tremendous pressure on the finite natural resources. The uneven distribution of population needs the proper adjustment of exiting things through the spatial planning only raises the standard of living of the population. So the population planning is the main element with reference to which other resources are planned (Singh 1968). In view of these demographic dimension and human resource to examine the spatial pattern of population in the study area to know the regional disparity.

In the present study an attempt is made to know the demographic pattern. The present study concentrated on growth of population, relationship between area and population, & decadal growth.

Temporal variations are observed at points of time i.e., 1951-2011. The required data for the present analysis is obtained from census of India. The data has been classified, processed and presented in the form of graphs.

Karnataka with a population of 6,10,95,297, retains the ninth rank as in 2001, in population size among all the States and Union Territories and accounts for 5.05% of Country’s population of 1,21,05,69,573 in 2011.

Of the 6,10,95,297 persons enumerated in the State, 3,09,66,657 are Males and 3,01,28,640 are Females. Among the districts within the State, Bangalore District is the most populated District with 96,21,551 persons and accounts for 15.75% of the State’s total population while Kodagu District with a population share of 0.91% is the least populated District. Except, Bangalore Rural (9,90,923) and Kodagu (5,54,519) Districts, all the remaining 28 districts have population higher than one million. Of the 6,10,95,297 persons enumerated in the State, 3,74,69,335 persons reside in the Rural areas and 2,36,25,962 persons reside in Urban areas. In terms of percentage, 61.33% are Rural residents and 38.67% are Urban residents.

In terms of urbanization, the State has witnessed an increase of 4.68% in the proportion of Urban population in the last decade. Among the districts, Bangalore is the most urbanized District with 90.94 % of its population residing in Urban areas followed by Dharwad District (56.82%), Dakshina Kannada District (47.67%), Mysore District (41.50 %) and Bellary District (37.52%). The least urbanized District in the State is Kodagu with 14.61 %, preceded by Koppal District (16.81%), Mandya District (17.08%), Chamarajanagar District (17.14%) and Yadgir District (18.79%).