Population and settlement geography
Population and settlement geography
The paper tests census-based measurement, population dynamics, migration and the location and pattern of settlements, often as a short calculation followed by an interpretive sentence.
Core rules
- Density of population = total population ÷ area in km². Physiological density uses cultivated area instead; agricultural density uses agricultural population.
- Sex ratio in the Indian census = females per 1000 males.
- Natural increase = births − deaths; actual growth = natural increase + net migration.
- Demographic transition: high stationary → early expanding → late expanding → low stationary, with the fall in death rate preceding the fall in birth rate.
- Doubling time ≈ 70 ÷ annual growth rate (%).
- Settlement patterns: compact/nucleated, dispersed, linear, rectangular, radial, star. Rural settlement is tied to water, fertile land and defence; urban growth follows transport nodes and central-place functions.
Worked example
A district has 9,60,000 people in 2400 km², of which 1600 km² is cultivated. Annual growth is 2%. Find density, physiological density and doubling time. Reasoning: density = 9,60,000 ÷ 2400 = 400 persons/km². Physiological density = 9,60,000 ÷ 1600 = 600 persons/km², showing real pressure on farmland. Doubling time ≈ 70 ÷ 2 = 35 years. The three figures answer different questions, so state which one you are quoting.
Traps that cost marks
Reporting sex ratio as males per 1000 females; confusing arithmetic and physiological density; adding net migration into natural increase; using 70/rate for a declining population without a sign check; describing a pattern as "scattered" without naming it dispersed.