• Originally called Patnam or Pattanam.
• Portuguese arrived in 1522 and built a port and named it Sao Tome.
• Andrew Cogan and Francis Day of the East India Company founded a factory in Chennai in 1639.
• It took on the names of Medraspatnam, Madraspatnam, Maddaraspatan, Madrazpatam, Madrespatnam, Maddaras, Madras, Madrepatna, Madrasapatan, Madris patnam, Maderas and Maddirass depending on whether it was the British, French, Dutch or Portuguese who were referring to it.
• Francis Day, founder of Madras was a hard-drinking, gambler, and womanizer.
• He either founded Madras because of the cloth business or because he had a mistress in Portuguese San Thome.
• There may have been a kuppam called Madarasanpatnam after the Roman Catholic headman of the fishing village (Madarasan) which was then changed to Chennapatnam after the Darmala brothers fathers name Chennappa who were the rulers at the time, and a Fort called Madraspatnam.
• Ft. St. George, White Town and Black Town sprawled and merged with triplicane (1676) Egmore, Purasawalkam, Tondiarpet (1693) Tiruvottriyur, Nungambakkam, Vyasarpady, Ennore, Sathangadu (1708), Vepery, Periamet, Pudupakkam, Ernavore, Sadayanakuppam (1742) San Thome, Mylapore (1749).
• Chennai population in 1871 was 397,552. In 1931 with the new inclusion of Mambalam and T. Nagar population was 647,232. In 1971 with Adyar, Guindy, Saidapet, West Mambalam, Kodambakkam, Aminjikari and Ayyanvaram being added to Chennai the population was 2,469,449.

Source: Madras Rediscovered. Muttiah

The foundation for the development of the Chennai was laid in 1639 as a British settlement and later expanded as a new town around Fort St. George. The population, which was 19,000 in 1646, expanded to 40,000 in 1669 and the surroundings of the Fort area covering 16 hamlets were constituted as the City of Madras in 1798.

Chennai, the capital City of Tamil Nadu is the fourth largest Metropolitan City in India. The Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) comprises the city of Chennai and its outlying urban and rural areas. The outlying area consists of one cantonment, 4 Townships, 16 Municipalities, 20 Special Village Panchayats and 213 Village Panchayats in 10 Panchayat Unions. The extent of CMA including St. Thomas Mount cantonment is 1172 Sq.km. The Chennai City area now covers 181.06 Sq.km. The urban units grouped under the title "Adjacent Urban Area (AUA)" and "Distant Urban Area (DUA)" covers 164.6 Sq.km. and 142.1 Sq.km. respectively.

The municipalities and special village panchayats have experienced higher growth than that of the city. The density pattern indicate that the city has the highest density of 247 persons/ha, whereas the average density in CMA is only 59 persons/ha. The density in the municipal areas and special village panchayats is very low, indicating that these areas offer tremendous potential for growth and would be the receiving residential nodes in future.

Growth of Population

The city area recorded a growth of more than 2% per annum during the decades 1951-61 and 1961-71. The reasons for this rapid growth rate can be attributed to industrial development and increase in economic activities and employment opportunities in the city and its suburbs, attracting large migrant population. The negative growth during 1971-81 is due to the annexation of surrounding panchayat areas to the city.

Chennai is a city of migrants like any other metropolitan city in India. According to 2001 Census, migrants to Chennai City from other parts of Tamil Nadu State constitute 74.5 %. The growth in migrant population shows a ward down trend from 37.24% in 1961 to 21.57% in 2001. Migrants from other parts of India constitute 23.8% and the remaining 1.71 % of the migrants is from other countries.

Population projections have been carried out for CMA based on the past trends. It is estimated that CMA would house a population of 126 lakhs by 2026, of which Chennai city alone would account for 58 lakhs.

Source for above information: Development plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area.