Population & Settlement — UPSC Prelims Geography previous year questions

Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of live births a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing years (15–49). It assumes she lives through these years and follows current age-specific birth rates.
Option (a) describes the crude birth rate. Option (c) gives the rate of natural increase. Option (b) is about a couple, not a woman, and TFR is not defined by couples.
Remember: a TFR of about 2.1 is the replacement level.

Source: Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System definitions; NCERT Class XII Fundamentals of Human Geography, Population

Italy, Japan and South Korea have very low fertility rates. Their populations are ageing, and they are shrinking or about to shrink. Their media coverage is often about this.
Nigeria has a high birth rate and a young, fast-growing population. South Africa's population is still growing, and its fertility is higher than these three.
So only 1, 2 and 4 fit.
Remember: South Korea has had the world's lowest total fertility rate, below one.

Source: UN World Population Prospects; NCERT Class XII Fundamentals of Human Geography, Population

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Changpa are semi-nomadic herders of the Changthang plateau in Ladakh. They do not live mainly in Uttarakhand.
Statement 2 is correct. They rear Pashmina goats, whose fine undercoat gives Pashmina wool.
Statement 3 is correct. The Changpa are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe.
Remember: Changthang means northern plain in Tibetan.

Source: Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order for Jammu and Kashmir; Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Pair 1 is correct. The Limboo (Limbu) are an important community of Sikkim.
Pair 2 is incorrect. The Karbi are found mainly in Karbi Anglong in Assam, not Himachal Pradesh.
Pair 3 is correct. The Dongria Kondh live in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha.
Pair 4 is incorrect. The Bonda live in the Malkangiri hills of Odisha, not Tamil Nadu.
Remember: the Bonda and Dongria Kondh are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of Odisha.

Source: Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India

The town is Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) in Nagapattinam district. It was a Danish trading settlement from 1620.
It has Fort Dansborg and the New Jerusalem Church. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu.
Kerala, Karnataka and Goa coasts had other European settlements, mainly Portuguese, Dutch and British. They did not have a Danish outpost of this kind.
Remember: Serampore in West Bengal was the other Danish settlement in India.

Source: Archaeological Survey of India; Tamil Nadu Tourism

Statement 1 is correct. The Census counts a person as literate only if he or she can both read and write.
Statement 2 is correct. The age limit is seven years and above. The person must read and write with understanding in any language.
A person who can only read, or only sign a name, is treated as illiterate.
Children below seven are treated as illiterate by definition in the Census.
Remember: Census 2011 literacy rate is 74.04 per cent of the population aged 7 and above.

Source: Census of India 2011, Concepts and Definitions

Statement 1 is correct. The vertical axis of a population pyramid shows age groups, usually in five-year bands.
Statement 2 is correct. The pyramid has two sides. Males are shown on the left and females on the right.
The length of each bar shows the number or share of people.
So a pyramid shows both age and sex structure.
Remember: A broad base shows a young, growing population. A narrow base shows low births.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 2

The Indo-Aryan family is the largest language group in India. About 70 to 75 per cent of Indians speak an Indo-Aryan language.
It includes Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi.
Dravidian languages come second. They are spoken mainly in South India.
Austric and Sino-Tibetan groups are small and spoken by tribal communities.
Remember: Hindi is the single largest language by number of speakers.

Source: Census of India 2011, Language data; NCERT Class XII, India: People and Economy

Early Tamil poetry divides land into five regions called tinai.
Marutam is the farming plain, so Maruta Makkal are ploughmen. A matches 3.
Kurinji is the hill region, so Kuravan Makkal are hill people. B matches 4.
Mullai is the forest and pasture region, so Mullai Makkal are pastoralists. C matches 1.
Neytal is the coast, so Neytal Makkal are fishing people. D matches 2.
Remember: The fifth tinai is Palai, the dry land.

Source: Sangam literature (Tolkappiyam); NCERT Class VI-XII Tamil region history references

Physiological density is total population divided by net cultivated (arable) land.
It shows the pressure of people on land that can grow food.
Agricultural density counts only the agricultural population per unit of arable land.
Arithmetic density is total population divided by total area.
Economic density relates population to economic resources, not arable land.
Remember: A high physiological density means heavy pressure on farmland.

Source: NCERT Class XII, India: People and Economy, Ch. 1 (Population)

Bhilai is a steel town, so it is an industrial town. A matches 2.
Visakhapatnam is a major port, so it is a transport town. B matches 1.
Singrauli is a coal mining area, so it is a mining town. C matches 3.
Ambala is a cantonment town. D matches 4.
The code is 2, 1, 3, 4.
Remember: Towns are classified by their dominant function.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 10

In Census 2011, Mizoram had 94.4 per cent Scheduled Tribe population. This is the highest among the States.
Nagaland had 86.5 per cent and Meghalaya had 86.1 per cent.
Arunachal Pradesh had about 68.8 per cent.
Lakshadweep, a Union Territory, has a higher share than Mizoram. But the question asks only about States.
Remember: Mizoram is the State, and Lakshadweep is the UT, with the top ST share.

Source: Census of India 2011, Scheduled Tribes data

The Blue Mountains are the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
The Todas are a pastoral tribe of the Nilgiris. They are known for buffalo herding.
Lambadas are a nomadic group of the Deccan. Gonds live in central India. Jarawas live in the Andaman Islands.
Remember: Other Nilgiri tribes are Kotas, Badagas, Irulas and Kurumbas.

Source: Census of India, Scheduled Tribes; NCERT Class XII, India: People and Economy

Baghelkhand is a region of eastern Madhya Pradesh.
Kuttanad is the low-lying rice area of Kerala, below sea level.
Saurashtra is the peninsula of western Gujarat.
Rarh is the western plateau-fringe region of West Bengal.
Matching such regions with States is a common map-based question.
Baghelkhand centres on Rewa and Satna.
So the code is A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1.

Source: Standard Indian regional geography; NCERT Class XII, India: People and Economy

Natural population change is the difference between births and deaths in a year.
It is found by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate. The result is the natural increase when births are more.
It leaves out migration. When migration is added, we get the total change in population.
Multiplying or adding the two rates has no demographic meaning. Subtracting birth rate from death rate gives the sign reversed.
Remember: Population growth = natural increase + net migration.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 2

The 2011 Census classifies main workers into four groups.
These are cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers and other workers.
Domestic workers are not a separate category. They fall under other workers.
Cultivators, agricultural labourers and household industrial workers are all separate groups in the Census.
Remember: Services, trade and manufacturing outside the home all come under other workers.

Source: Census of India 2011, Primary Census Abstract (concepts and definitions)

Census 2011 gives these densities per sq km. Bihar has 1,106. West Bengal has 1,028. Kerala has 859. Uttar Pradesh has 829.
So the descending order is Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh.
Other orders put Kerala or West Bengal at the top. This is wrong, as Bihar is the densest of the four.
Remember: Among States, Bihar is the densest. Among all units, Delhi is the densest.

Source: Census of India 2011, Provisional Population Totals

The Koryaks live in the Russian Far East, north of Kamchatka, not in Alaska. The Alaskan peoples are the Inuit (Eskimo) and Aleut.
The Punan are hunter-gatherers of Borneo.
The Ruwala are a Bedouin tribe of the Arabian desert.
The Lapps (Sami) live in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
Remember: Koryak is in Russia, not Alaska.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 5 Primary Activities

The Khirghiz (Kyrgyz) are a people of the Central Asian steppes. Their home is Kyrgyzstan and nearby areas, not Sudan.
Pygmies live in the Congo basin rain forest.
The Angami are a Naga tribe of Nagaland.
The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan (Hokkaido).
Remember: Khirghiz are Central Asian nomads who live in yurts.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 5 Primary Activities

Umland is a German word. It means the area around a town or city that depends on it for services.
This area supplies food and labour and uses the city's markets.
The heart area of a town is its core or central business district.
A satellite town is a separate small town near a large city.
A residential area is a different land-use zone.
Remember: Umland is the same as hinterland.

Source: Human geography texts on urban settlements; NCERT Class XII, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch. 10