The pre-feasibility study conducted for Gelephu by the Department of Urban Development and Housing (now Department of Urban Development and Engineering Services), Royal Government of Bhutan, during January 2003, for the purpose of Urban Sector Programme Support is considered as a base for all population studies including future population projections. The population of the Gelephu urban area was calculated to be 12,398 during this survey.

Table 4.2 : Summary of the Population Distribution in Gelephu

The Gross Residential Density of the Gelephu Municipal Limit for the year 2002 was 19 persons per hectare with a major concentration of residential population living in the Town Core area.

In the exercise of population projection, understanding the past population growth trend of the town becomes very crucial, since this data will act as the base for future projection. However, due to the non-availability of any established population data for Gelephu town for over past one and half decades, the population data provided in the 1986 Urban Development Plan for Gelephu has been considered as the base datum. The population of Gelephu was calculated to be 4,844 people with an institutional population of 877 during May 1984, and 5,167 with an institutional population of 788 during October 1986, in the surveys conducted by the National Urban Development Commission. The population growth rate between these two surveys remained around 4% per annum. During this same period the population growth rate of Thimphu, Samdrup Jongkhar and Phuentsholing were calculated to be 5%, 3.5% and 6.3% per annum respectively.