Which of the following is a pull factor of migration?

Security of life and property at the destination

Unemployment at the place of origin

Recurrent floods and epidemics at home

Political turmoil in the home region

Security of life and property at the destination

In which stage of the demographic transition does a population grow fastest?

The second stage, when deaths fall but births stay high

The first stage, when both birth and death rates are high

The second stage, when deaths fall but births stay high

The last stage, when both rates are low

Assertion (A): River valleys are among the most densely populated areas of the world. Reason (R): People prefer to live where fresh water is easily available, and flat valley land with fertile soil supports agriculture.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which of the following correctly distinguishes growth from development?

Growth is quantitative and value neutral; development is qualitative and value positive

Both are qualitative and always positive

Growth is qualitative; development is quantitative

Growth is quantitative and value neutral; development is qualitative and value positive

Development can be negative, but growth cannot

The World Population and Human Development

People are the most important resource of a country: they use the earth’s resources, they produce, and they are what development is for. This chapter takes the world population first — where people live, how densely, and how their numbers change through births, deaths and migration, ending with the demographic transition — and then human development, the idea that development means widening people’s choices rather than just raising income. The questions ask for definitions (density, natural and actual growth, push and pull), the stages of transition, and the pillars, approaches and dimensions of human development.

Distribution and Density — Where People Live

The world’s population is very unevenly spread: roughly 90 per cent of it lives on about 10 per cent of the land area. Dense concentrations occur in north-eastern USA, north-western Europe, and South, South-East and East Asia. Very few people live near the poles, in the hot and cold deserts, or in the high-rainfall zones near the equator. Population density expresses this as a ratio: density = population ÷ area, usually in persons per square kilometre. For example (illustrative), 12 lakh people living on 3,000 sq km gives a density of 400 persons per sq km.

Factors influencing the distribution of population
Group	Factor and its effect
Geographical	Availability of water (people prefer areas where fresh water is easily available — river valleys are among the most densely populated); landforms (flat plains and gentle slopes favour farming, roads and industry); climate (extremes of heat or cold repel); soils (fertile loamy soils support intensive agriculture)
Economic	Minerals attract industries and hence workers; urbanisation offers employment, education, health and transport; industrialisation creates jobs for skilled and semi-skilled workers and draws large numbers
Social and cultural	Places of religious or cultural significance attract people; social and political unrest drives them away; governments sometimes offer incentives to settle sparsely populated areas

Population Growth — Births, Deaths and Migration

Growth of population: the change in the number of inhabitants of a territory during a specific period; it may be positive (births plus in-migration exceed deaths plus out-migration) or negative.
Natural growth = births − deaths. Actual growth = births − deaths + in-migration − out-migration.
Crude birth rate (CBR): live births in a year per thousand of the mid-year population. Crude death rate (CDR): deaths in a year per thousand of the mid-year population. Worked (illustrative): CBR 28 and CDR 8 give natural increase of 20 per thousand, that is 2 per cent a year.
Migration: a migrant who leaves is an emigrant from the place of origin; one who arrives is an immigrant at the destination. Push factors make the place of origin less attractive — unemployment, poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics. Pull factors make the destination attractive — better jobs and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life and property, pleasant climate.

For most of history the world’s population grew very slowly. Growth accelerated as food supply, transport, medicine and sanitation improved — most of all after the Industrial Revolution — and the doubling time of the population shortened sharply. Thomas Malthus (1798) argued that population tends to grow faster than the food supply, so that unchecked growth would end in famine, disease and war; family planning is the modern response to rapid growth.

Demographic transition — from high births and deaths to low births and deaths
Stage	Fertility and mortality	Population and society
First	Both high; deaths high because of epidemics and variable food supply	Growth slow; people mostly farmers, life expectancy low, mostly illiterate, low technology
Second	Fertility stays high at first and declines later; mortality falls with better sanitation and health care	The gap between births and deaths widens: a large net increase in population
Last	Both decline considerably	Population stable or growing slowly; urbanised, literate, high technical know-how, family size deliberately controlled

⚠️ The explosion is in the second stage, not the first

The first stage has the highest birth rates but slow growth, because deaths are almost as high. Growth is fastest in the second stage, when deaths fall and births have not yet caught up. A question that links "rapid population growth" to "high birth and high death rates" has put the right numbers in the wrong stage.

Human Development — Growth Is Not Development

Growth is quantitative and value neutral — it may be positive or negative. Development is a qualitative change that is always value positive: it happens only when there is a positive addition to the existing condition. The idea of human development was introduced by the economist Mahbub-ul-Haq, who described it as development that enlarges people’s choices and improves their lives; Amartya Sen saw an increase in freedom, or a decrease in unfreedom, as the main objective of development. The UNDP has published the Human Development Report every year since 1990.

The four pillars of human development
Pillar	Meaning
Equity	Equal access to opportunities for everybody, irrespective of gender, race, income or caste
Sustainability	Continuity in the availability of opportunities — each generation must have the same opportunities, so resources are used with the future in mind
Productivity	Human labour productivity, constantly enriched by building people’s capabilities
Empowerment	The power to make choices, which comes from increasing freedom and capability; good governance and people-oriented policies are needed

Approaches to human development
Approach	Central idea
Income approach	Human development is linked to income; the higher the income, the higher the level of development — one of the oldest approaches
Welfare approach	People are beneficiaries of development activities; the government is responsible and raises human development by spending heavily on welfare — education, health, social services
Basic needs approach	Proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO); six basic needs — health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing; the question of human choices is ignored
Capability approach	Associated with Amartya Sen; building human capabilities in health, education and access to resources is the key to human development

The Human Development Index (HDI) ranks countries on a score from 0 to 1 across three dimensions: health, measured by life expectancy at birth; education or access to knowledge, measured by indicators of schooling; and access to resources, measured by income in terms of purchasing power. Each dimension carries a weight of one-third. Bhutan is known for officially measuring progress by Gross National Happiness, a reminder that material measures do not capture everything.

⚠️ Basic needs and capability are not the same approach

The basic needs approach lists what people must be given — and treats them as recipients. The capability approach asks what people are able to do and be — and treats them as agents. "ILO" and "six needs" point to the first; "Amartya Sen" and "building capabilities" point to the second.

Key takeaways

About 90 per cent of the world’s people live on about 10 per cent of its land; density = population ÷ area.
Distribution is shaped by geographical (water, landforms, climate, soils), economic (minerals, urbanisation, industrialisation) and social-cultural factors.
Natural growth = births − deaths; actual growth adds in-migration and subtracts out-migration.
Push factors repel from the origin; pull factors attract to the destination.
Demographic transition: high births and deaths → falling deaths with high births (fastest growth) → low births and deaths.
Growth is quantitative and value neutral; development is qualitative and value positive. Mahbub-ul-Haq introduced human development; UNDP reports since 1990.
Four pillars: equity, sustainability, productivity, empowerment. Four approaches: income, welfare, basic needs (ILO), capability (Sen).
HDI: health, education and access to resources, each weighted one-third, scored from 0 to 1.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

In a region, births in a year exceed deaths by 6,000, while 2,500 people move in and 4,000 move out. The actual growth of population in that year is:
1. 4,500
2. 6,000
3. 8,500
4. 7,500
Show answer
Answer: A — 4,500
Actual growth = births − deaths + in-migration − out-migration = 6,000 + 2,500 − 4,000 = 4,500. The figure 6,000 is natural growth only, 8,500 adds the in-migrants but forgets those who left, and 7,500 reverses the two migration flows.
Which of the following is a pull factor of migration?
1. Unemployment at the place of origin
2. Recurrent floods and epidemics at home
3. Political turmoil in the home region
4. Security of life and property at the destination
Show answer
Answer: D — Security of life and property at the destination
Pull factors make the destination attractive, and security of life and property is one of them, alongside better jobs, living conditions and a pleasant climate. Unemployment, floods and epidemics, and political turmoil are all conditions at the place of origin that push people out, which makes them push factors.
In which stage of the demographic transition does a population grow fastest?
1. The first stage, when both birth and death rates are high
2. The second stage, when deaths fall but births stay high
3. The last stage, when both rates are low
4. Growth is equal in all stages
Show answer
Answer: B — The second stage, when deaths fall but births stay high
In the second stage better sanitation and health care cut the death rate while fertility remains high, so the gap between births and deaths — and with it the net increase — is widest. In the first stage high deaths almost cancel high births, and in the last both are low, so growth in those stages is slow.
Assertion (A): River valleys are among the most densely populated areas of the world.
Reason (R): People prefer to live where fresh water is easily available, and flat valley land with fertile soil supports agriculture.
1. A is false, but R is true
2. A is true, but R is false
3. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
4. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Show answer
Answer: C — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Both statements are true and the reason explains the assertion: water is the most important single factor in where people live, and valleys combine water with flat land and fertile alluvial soil that make farming, roads and settlement easy. R is not a separate truth that merely sits beside A — it is the cause of the dense population A describes.
Which of the following correctly distinguishes growth from development?
1. Both are qualitative and always positive
2. Growth is qualitative; development is quantitative
3. Growth is quantitative and value neutral; development is qualitative and value positive
4. Development can be negative, but growth cannot
Show answer
Answer: C — Growth is quantitative and value neutral; development is qualitative and value positive
Growth refers to a change in quantity over time and may be positive or negative, so it is value neutral; development is a qualitative change that occurs only when there is a positive addition, so it is always value positive. Reversing the two adjectives, or saying development can be negative, contradicts that distinction.
The approach to human development that was initially proposed by the International Labour Organisation and identified six needs, including food, housing and sanitation, is the:
1. Basic needs approach
2. Capability approach
3. Welfare approach
4. Income approach
Show answer
Answer: A — Basic needs approach
The basic needs approach was proposed by the ILO and named six basic needs: health, education, food, water supply, sanitation and housing. The capability approach is associated with Amartya Sen, the welfare approach makes government spending the engine of development, and the income approach ties development to income alone.
Match List-I (pillar of human development) with List-II (its meaning):
List-I: A. Equity B. Sustainability C. Productivity D. Empowerment
List-II: I. Power to make choices through increasing freedom and capability II. Equal access to opportunities irrespective of gender, race or caste III. Continuity in the availability of opportunities across generations IV. Human labour enriched by building capabilities
1. A-III, B-II, C-IV, D-I
2. A-II, B-III, C-I, D-IV
3. A-II, B-IV, C-III, D-I
4. A-II, B-III, C-IV, D-I
Show answer
Answer: D — A-II, B-III, C-IV, D-I
Equity is equal access to opportunities, sustainability is the continuity of opportunities from one generation to the next, productivity is human labour enriched by building capabilities, and empowerment is the power to make choices. The most tempting wrong code swaps productivity and empowerment, because both mention capability; empowerment is about choice, productivity about work.
Consider the following statements about the Human Development Index:
A. It is scored on a scale from 0 to 1.
B. Its three dimensions are health, education and access to resources.
C. Each dimension carries a weight of one-third.
D. It measures development by income alone.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
1. A and D only
2. A, B and C only
3. B and C only
4. A, B, C and D
Show answer
Answer: B — A, B and C only
The HDI is scored from 0 to 1, combines health (life expectancy at birth), education (access to knowledge) and access to resources (income in purchasing-power terms), and gives each dimension one-third of the weight — so A, B and C are true. D is false: measuring by income alone is the old income approach that the HDI was designed to move beyond.