Population and Settlement Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: B

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

1. The concentric zone model of urban structure was proposed by E.W. Burgess (1925) for Chicago.
2. The sector model is associated with Homer Hoyt (1939), listed with Davis in the paper.
3. The multiple nuclei model was proposed by C.D. Harris and E.L. Ullman (1945).
4. The rural-urban fringe was defined and classified by R.J. Pryor (1968).

The other codes give the concentric zone model to Pryor or to Harris and Ullman, so only option B fits.

Answer: A

Hidden momentum means that population keeps increasing even after the birth rate falls, because of a large youthful population.

A population that has grown fast has a large share of children and young adults. Even when fertility falls to replacement level, these large cohorts move into the reproductive ages and produce many births in total, so the population continues to grow for several decades before stabilising. This is population momentum.

High birth rates with low death rates describe natural increase, not momentum; growth at the destination of displaced people is migration; and growth despite population control describes failed policy.

Answer: B

Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Slums are typically densely populated and compactly built, with small houses packed closely together, because poor migrants crowd onto the limited land available near places of work. They also typically lack basic amenities such as safe water, sanitation, drainage and electricity.

Both statements describe slums correctly, but the lack of amenities does not cause the high density and compact layout; the crowding comes from poverty, migration and land shortage. So R does not explain A.

Answer: B

The incorrect statement is that vital statistics is a civil registration system recording incidence of crimes.

Vital statistics are records of vital events, births, deaths, marriages, divorces and stillbirths, collected through the civil registration system. In India this is done under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. Crime figures are collected separately by the National Crime Records Bureau.

The other statements are correct: India's census is held every ten years, National Sample Survey data are collected in numbered rounds, and the strength of a census is that it covers the entire population.

Answer: A

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

1. Transhumance is the seasonal movement of herders and their animals up and down the hills, as with the Gujjars and Bakarwals of the Himalaya.
2. Commuting is daily travel from home to the place of work.
3. Emigration is migration out of a country, across international borders.
4. Circulation is short-term, repetitive or cyclical movement without a permanent change of residence.

Option D swaps emigration and circulation, and options B and C misplace transhumance.

Answer: C

The laws given by Ravenstein are (a), (b) and (d).

E.G. Ravenstein, in his 'Laws of Migration' (1885 and 1889), stated that each main current of migration produces a compensating counter-current; that females predominate among short-distance migrants; and that the volume of migration increases as industry, commerce and the means of transport develop.

The idea that migration is selective, that migrants differ systematically in age, education and other traits from non-migrants, was formulated in Everett Lee's theory of migration (1966), not by Ravenstein, which is why the options with (c) are wrong.

Answer: A

The key gives Only (1) and (2) are correct: Malthus and Ricardo.

Robert Malthus argued that population tends to grow faster than the food supply, and that poverty and want are the checks that bring it back into line. David Ricardo tied population to wages: when wages rise above the level needed to live on, population grows and pushes them back towards it, so the wage of labour stays near subsistence. Both therefore link population growth with wealth and poverty.

Warren Thompson is known for the demographic transition model, which sorts countries into stages of births and deaths rather than relating growth to wealth and poverty. Michael Sadler wrote against Malthus in 1830 that the fertility of people varies inversely with their numbers, so he also wrote on the population question; this is why option C, (1) and (4), is the nearest rival.

What could and could not be confirmed: the Malthus and Sadler facts above were checked, but no source was found stating which pair the question's author had in mind, so the keyed pair is taken as printed.

Answer: C

All four are consequences, so the answer is (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).

Migration is selective by sex, so it changes the sex ratio of both the areas people leave and the areas they reach, as in the male-dominated cities of India. It is also selective by age, usually of young adults, so it changes the age structure. Migrants often differ in literacy and education from those who stay, which changes the educational profile of both places. And migration by definition changes the place of residence.

Since all four effects follow, the options that leave any out are incomplete.

Answer: C

The correct matching is (4) (3) (1) (2).

• By distance, migration is classed as long or short.
• By causes, it is economic or social (or political, demographic).
• By number of people moving, it is individual or mass migration.
• By time, it is temporary or permanent.

Each basis names the yardstick, and each type in List II is a value of that yardstick, so the pairs follow from the words themselves. Option A pairs causes with individual migration and number with temporary migration, and options B and D misplace distance.

Answer: A

Both statements are true and the Reason explains the Assertion.

In Indian census data the rural-to-rural stream is the largest migration stream, and it is dominated by women: female migrants far outnumber male migrants in it.

The reason is the custom of patrilocal (virilocal) residence. A woman moves to her husband's household on marriage, usually in another village, and the census records her as a migrant whose reason for moving is marriage. Marriage is the leading reason for female migration in every census, so the Reason accounts directly for the preponderance of women, which rules out the options saying it does not explain the Assertion or that either is false.