All exercise questions (and the in-text questions asked within the chapter) from the NCERT textbook Fundamentals of Human Geography, Chapter 2, “The World Population: Distribution, Density and Growth”, exactly as the English edition prints them, with a full model answer for each. Try your own answer first, then check it against this one.
1 Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below
Q. Which one of the following continents has the highest growth of population?
(a) Africa (b) South America (c) Asia (d) North America
Answer: (a) Africa. Africa currently has the highest natural growth rate of population among the world’s continents; Asia is the most populous continent in total numbers, but that is not the same as having the fastest growth.
Q. Which one of the following is not an area of sparse population?
(a) The Atacama (b) South-east Asia (c) Equatorial region (d) Polar regions
Answer: (b) South-east Asia. The Atacama desert, the equatorial rainforest region and the polar regions are all sparsely populated because of harsh or uncomfortable physical conditions (extreme dryness, dense forest, extreme cold); South-east Asia, by contrast, is one of the densely populated regions of the world.
Q. Which one of the following is not a push factor?
(a) Water shortage (b) Medical/educational facilities (c) Unemployment (d) Epidemics
Answer: (b) Medical/educational facilities is not a push factor. The chapter lists unemployment, political turmoil and epidemics among the push factors that make a place of origin less attractive (water shortage is not in the chapter’s list, though it too makes a place less attractive); good medical and educational facilities, by contrast, are a pull factor that makes a place of destination more attractive.
Q. Which one of the following is not a fact?
(a) Human population increased more than ten times during the past 500 years. (b) Population growth is high in the first stage of demographic transition.
Answer: (b) “Population growth is high in the first stage of demographic transition” is not a fact. The chapter itself states that in Stage I, population growth is slow, because high fertility and high mortality compensate for each other, not high. Statement (a) is confirmed by the chapter’s own “Did you know” box. Note: the English edition of this exercise prints only these two options; the Hindi edition adds a third option not present here, which is a genuine difference between the two editions’ printings, not an error in either.
2 Answer the following questions in about 30 words
Q. Name three geographical factors that influence the distribution of population.
Answer: (i) Availability of water: water is the most important factor for life, so river valleys are densely populated. (ii) Landforms: flat plains such as the Ganga plains are densely populated, while mountainous zones such as the Himalayas are scarcely populated. (iii) Climate: regions with a pleasant climate, such as the Mediterranean, have been settled since early periods in history, while extreme hot or cold deserts remain uncomfortable for habitation.
Q. There are a number of areas with high population density in the world. Why does this happen?
Answer: High density results from geographical (water, favourable landforms, pleasant climate, fertile soils), economic (minerals, urbanisation, industrialisation offering employment) and social-cultural (places of religious or cultural significance) factors acting together, all of which make a region more attractive and able to support more people.
Q. What are the three components of population change?
Answer: The three components of population change are births, deaths and migration.
3 Distinguish between
Q. Birth rate and death rate.
Answer: Birth rate (Crude Birth Rate, CBR): the number of live births in a year per thousand of population, calculated as CBR = (B/P) × 1000.
Death rate (Crude Death Rate, CDR): the number of deaths in a particular year per thousand of population in a particular region, calculated as CDR = (D/P) × 1000. Mortality rates are affected by a region’s demographic structure, social advancement and level of economic development.
Q. Push factors and pull factors of migration.
Answer: Push factors, such as unemployment, poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics and socio-economic backwardness, make the place of origin seem less attractive.
Pull factors, such as better job opportunities and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life and property, and pleasant climate, make the place of destination seem more attractive than the place of origin.
4 Answer the following questions in about 150 words
Q. Discuss the factors influencing the distribution and density of population in the world.
Answer: The world’s population is very unevenly distributed: about 90 per cent of the world’s population lives on about 10 per cent of its land area, and the 10 most populous countries hold about 60 per cent of world population, 6 of them in Asia. Three groups of factors explain this.
Geographical factors: availability of water makes river valleys densely populated; landforms make flat plains like the Ganga plains dense and mountainous zones like the Himalayas sparse; climate makes regions like the Mediterranean, with a pleasant climate, attractive since early history, while extreme hot or cold deserts remain uncomfortable; fertile loamy soils support intensive agriculture and therefore more people.
Economic factors: mineral-rich areas such as the Katanga-Zambia copper belt attract industries and workers; urbanisation draws people to cities for better jobs, education and medical facilities, and mega cities keep attracting migrants; industrialisation, as in the Kobe-Osaka region of Japan, creates jobs beyond the factory itself.
Social and cultural factors: places of religious or cultural significance attract more people, while social and political unrest drives people away.
Q. Discuss the three stages of demographic transition.
Answer: Demographic Transition Theory describes how a region’s population changes from high births and high deaths to low births and low deaths as society moves from being rural, agrarian and illiterate to urban, industrial and literate, through three stages.
Stage I (High Fluctuating): both fertility and mortality are high, and they compensate for each other, so population growth is slow. Most people work in agriculture, where large families are seen as an asset; life expectancy is low, and people are mostly illiterate with low levels of technology. Every country in the world was in this stage 200 years ago; the chapter’s own figure places present-day rainforest tribes and Bangladesh here.
Stage II (Expanding): fertility stays high at first but gradually declines, while mortality falls faster because of improvements in sanitation and health. Because of this gap, the net addition to population is high. The chapter’s figure places Peru, Kenya and Sri Lanka here.
Stage III (Low Fluctuating): both fertility and mortality decline considerably, and population becomes stable or grows slowly. Society becomes urbanised and literate, with high technical know-how, and deliberately controls family size. The chapter’s figure places Canada, Japan and the USA here. Different countries today sit at different stages of this transition, which shows that human beings are flexible enough to adjust their own fertility.
5 In-text questions (asked within the chapter)
Q. Why do people prefer to live in certain regions and not in others?
Answer: People settle where living is easier and earning a livelihood is possible. Geographical factors (easily available fresh water, flat plains and gentle slopes, a comfortable climate, fertile soils), economic factors (minerals, cities, industries offering jobs) and social and cultural factors (places of religious or cultural significance, peace instead of unrest) draw people to some regions, while deserts, high mountains, very cold or very wet areas and places of unrest keep others thinly populated. This is why about 90 per cent of the world population lives in about 10 per cent of its land area.
Q. The 10 most populous countries of the world contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s population. Of these 10 countries, 6 are located in Asia. Identify these six countries of Asia.
Answer: Fig. 2.1 shows China, India, U.S.A, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico. The six Asian countries among them are China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia (most of Russia’s territory lies in Asia). The other four are the U.S.A and Mexico (North America), Brazil (South America) and Nigeria (Africa).
Q. (Region X has an area of 100 sq km and a population of 1,50,000 persons, so its density is 1,500 persons/sq km.) What does this tell you about Region X?
Answer: On average 1,500 people live on every square kilometre of Region X, so it is a very densely populated region. Such a high density usually means the region has favourable conditions (water, level land, fertile soil, or jobs in cities and industries), and also that its land and resources are under heavy pressure.
Q. Can you name some areas in India which are thinly populated due to poor soils?
Answer: Examples are the sandy desert of western Rajasthan (Thar), the rocky and stony plateau areas of Ladakh, and the dry, less fertile tracts of Kachchh in Gujarat. Their soils cannot support intensive agriculture, so fewer people live there than on the fertile loamy soils of the Ganga plains.
Q. Yet city life can be very taxing. Think of some of the unpleasant aspects of city life.
Answer: Overcrowding and slums, a shortage of affordable housing, traffic congestion and long travel times, air, water and noise pollution, pressure on water supply, drainage and sanitation, a high cost of living, and stress and insecurity are some unpleasant aspects of city life.
Q. (Some places attract more people because of religious or cultural significance, and governments offer incentives to settle sparsely populated areas.) Can you think of some examples from your region?
Answer: Answers depend on your own region. Examples: pilgrimage towns such as Varanasi, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ayodhya, Ajmer and Amritsar attract large numbers of people and have grown for religious reasons; and people move away from areas affected by violence or unrest. Write one or two examples from your own state in the same way.
Q. Do you realise that the same person is both an immigrant and an emigrant?
Answer: Yes. A migrant who moves out of the place of origin is an emigrant for that place, and the same person, on moving into the place of destination, is an immigrant for that place. For example, a worker who moves from Bihar to Punjab is an emigrant from Bihar and an immigrant in Punjab.
Q. Can you think of reasons why people migrate?
Answer: People migrate for a better economic and social life. Push factors at the place of origin (unemployment, poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics, socio-economic backwardness) make them leave, and pull factors at the place of destination (better job opportunities and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life and property, pleasant climate) draw them in.
Q. On the outline map of the world, show and name the countries of Europe and Asia with negative growth rate of population.
Answer: A country has a negative growth rate when its population falls between two points of time: deaths exceed births, and/or more people emigrate than immigrate. The book does not print a list, and the list changes from year to year, so use the latest data available to you. Countries widely reported (UN population estimates) as having a falling population in recent years include:
| Continent | Countries to show and name |
|---|---|
| Europe | Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Greece |
| Asia | Japan, China, South Korea |
How to show them: on the outline map of the world, shade each of these countries, write its name inside it (or join it to the name with a short arrow), and add a key, for example “shaded = negative growth rate of population”. Russia stretches across both Europe and Asia.
The book’s Project/Activity exercise asks: (i) has someone in your family migrated? Write about their place of destination and what made them migrate. (ii) Write a brief report on the distribution and density of population in your own state. These are personal project tasks (to be done at home or in class); the book gives no single “correct” answer, and they are not directly asked in the exam as written questions, but the underlying ideas of migration and density are both examinable in their own right.
All four parts of Question 1 are frequently repeated as direct objective questions, especially part (iii), where students often mistakenly treat medical/educational facilities as a push factor (it is actually a pull factor). Questions 4(i) and 4(ii) are the most direct basis for long-answer questions; learn their points in order. Remember that the English edition’s own Q1(iv) prints only two options (a) and (b). Do not import the Hindi edition’s extra third option or its lettering.