Population and Settlement Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The correct combination is (1), (2) and (3).

Christaller's central place theory (1933) arranges settlements in hexagonal market areas under three principles. Under the marketing principle (K=3) each higher-order place serves the equivalent of three lower-order market areas; under the transport or traffic principle (K=4) as many places as possible lie on straight routes; and under the administrative principle (K=7) each lower-order area falls wholly within one higher-order area.

Christaller proposed no K=9 'industrial principle', so every option including (4) is wrong.

Answer: C

(A) is true but (R) is false.

Census data show that Class I cities (population 100,000 and above) have grown faster than small and medium towns, drawing most rural-urban migrants and absorbing growing towns that cross into the class. The assertion is true.

The reason is false. The census definition of an urban area, a statutory town or a place with at least 5,000 people, 75 percent of male main workers outside agriculture and a density of at least 400 per square kilometre, has stayed essentially the same since 1961, so a change of definition does not explain the trend. That rules out A, B and D.

Answer: A

The key gives Pryor, R.J.

The term rural-urban fringe was used earlier by the sociologist T.L. Smith, but it was R.J. Pryor who, in his 1968 paper 'Defining the rural-urban fringe', set out the concept systematically: a zone of mixed land use between the continuously built-up city and the rural hinterland, with a lower density of occupied dwellings and a mixed population. Geography textbooks follow his definition.

R.E. Pahl studied commuter villages in the metropolitan fringe, Homer Hoyt proposed the sector model of urban land use, and Jean Gottmann the idea of megalopolis.

Answer: C

The demographic dividend is an increase in 15 to 64 age group population.

When fertility falls, the share of people of working age (15-64) rises relative to dependants. With more workers and fewer children and elderly to support, a country can save, invest and grow faster, provided its workers find productive jobs. India is in this phase now.

A rise in the 0-5 or 6-15 age groups increases young dependants, and a rise in the 65+ group is population ageing; all three raise the dependency ratio instead of yielding a dividend.

Answer: C

The dual recording system belongs to the Sample Registration System.

Run by the Registrar General of India since the late 1960s, the SRS records births and deaths in sample units in two independent ways: continuous enumeration by a local part-time enumerator, and a half-yearly retrospective survey by a full-time supervisor. The two records are matched and unmatched events are verified, which gives reliable fertility and mortality estimates.

The Census counts the population once in ten years, and the NFHS and the National Sample Survey are periodic sample surveys, not dual records of vital events.

Answer: D

The census does not provide information on the family planning practice of married couples.

The Census of India records the size, distribution and characteristics of the population: from successive counts come trends in population growth, the age-sex structure, migration and urbanisation, literacy, occupation and religion.

Contraceptive use and family planning practices are collected by sample surveys such as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), not by the census. The other three options are all standard census outputs, so they are wrong answers.

Answer: C

The correct matching is a-ii, b-i, c-iii, d-iv.

• Burgess (1925): circular concentric zones of distinct land use around the CBD.
• Harris and Ullman (1945): multiple nuclei, each with specialised functions.
• Hoyt (1939): sectors growing along transport routes from the centre.
• The exploitative (Marxist) model explains urban structure through ownership of resources and ability to pay.

Option B swaps Burgess and Harris-Ullman, D makes Burgess sectoral, and A gives Burgess the exploitative description.

Answer: B

The correct matching is a-(2), b-(4), c-(1), d-(3).

• Umland: the surrounding area of an urban centre that is economically, socially and culturally linked with the city, its tributary region (2).
• Conurbation: several towns that have grown into one physically continuous built-up area, polynuclear in form though functioning as one unit (4).
• Rurban fringe: the belt around a city of mixed rural and urban land use, with strong interaction between the two (1).
• Suburbs: settlements that develop as the city expands but keep separate administrative identities (3).

The other codes swap umland with the fringe or the conurbation with the suburbs.

Answer: C

The correct matching is a-(iv), b-(i), c-(iii), d-(ii).

The demographic transition model runs through four stages. In the high stationary stage both birth and death rates are high, so population grows little (iv). In the early expanding stage the death rate falls while the birth rate stays high, so growth is rapid (i).

In the late expanding stage the birth rate also starts to fall, while the death rate is already low and still falling, as the paper words it (iii). In the low stationary stage both rates are low and growth is again slow (ii). The other codes confuse the expanding stages with the stationary ones.

Answer: C

The correct matching is a-(1), b-(2), c-(4), d-(3).

• Linear settlements string out along a road, railway, river or canal (1).
• Dispersed settlements are scattered isolated dwellings at low density, common in hilly or forested areas (2).
• Nucleated or compact settlements are closely built around a clear centre, typical of fertile plains (4).
• Star-shaped settlements radiate outward along roads meeting at a central point (3).

The other codes give the linear pattern to the dispersed type or the radiating form to the compact type.