An Appraisal of Population Growth Rate through ESDA in Bahawalpur District, Pakistan

Exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) is one of the recently developed techniques in GIS used to analyze the statistical characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of population data. Current research is focused on the examination of spatial patterns of population growth rate in Bahawalpur district of Pakistan. Based on census data at union council level of the district, the present study uses specific techniques of ESDA including spatial autocorrelation and Moran’s Index to analyze the distribution and concentration of population. Keeping in view the research objectives, paper is divided in two sections. The first section deals with the analysis of spatial distribution of population growth rate at a specific interval size. The second part of the research deals with the application of spatial autocorrelation to examine the spatial clustering of population growth in the district. The results of the study show the spatial clustering of population growth rate in the northern part i.e. Bahawalpur city. The study concludes that uneven and non- random population distribution is not the result of random chance and is associated with various factors. The study can be beneficial for population planning authorities to identify the major clustered areas of high and low population growth for planning and regional development of the area.