Which of the following variable(s) is/are displayed in population pyramids? 1. Age-groups 2. Sex indicators (male and female) Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. A population pyramid, more exactly an age-sex pyramid, is a pair of back-to-back horizontal bar charts. The vertical axis carries age groups, usually in five-year bands running from the youngest at the bottom to the oldest at the top; the horizontal axis carries the number or the percentage of people in each band, with males plotted to one side of the centre line and females to the other. Both variables in the question are therefore displayed, and by construction — remove the age bands and the bars have nothing to stack against, remove the sex split and the figure is an ordinary histogram rather than a pyramid. What makes the shape informative is that it encodes a country's demographic history: a broad base and a narrow top mean high fertility and a young population, straight sides mean fertility near replacement with low mortality, and a narrow base under a bulging middle means an ageing population.
- (a)1 only — Age groups alone would give a single set of bars. The two-sided shape that gives the pyramid its name exists only because the sexes are plotted separately.
- (b)2 only — The sex split alone would give a two-bar comparison with no structure. It is the stacking by age band that turns it into a pyramid and lets it be read as a history.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, though the two axes of the figure are exactly age and sex. No other pair of variables defines the diagram.
The age-sex structure of a population is the single most useful thing a demographer can know about it, because almost everything else follows from it — the number of women in the reproductive age group sets future births, the size of the 15 to 64 band sets the labour force, and the size of the top bands sets the demand on pensions and health care. India's pyramid has been narrowing at the base for two decades as fertility has fallen, which is what produces the working-age bulge described as the demographic dividend.
The item is a definition check, and both statements are true by construction rather than as a matter of fact about any particular country, which is why the answer is safe even without data. Two refinements are worth carrying beyond the definition. First, the pyramid's shape is diagnostic: expansive with a wide base, constrictive with a narrowed base, or stationary with nearly straight sides. Second, an indentation on one side of a single age band is usually the trace of a specific event — a war, a famine, an epidemic, or in some countries a sex-selective preference showing as a shorter bar on the female side of the youngest bands. That last reading is what makes the sex axis more than decoration.
- A population pyramid plots age groups on the vertical axis and the number or share of people on the horizontal axis, with males and females on opposite sides of the centre line.
- Age bands are conventionally five-year intervals, youngest at the bottom.
- A wide base and narrow apex indicate high fertility and a young population; a narrow base under a wide middle indicates an ageing one.
- The 15 to 64 band is the working-age population, and its share is what the term demographic dividend refers to.
- Notches in a single band on one side often mark a specific historical event or a sex-ratio distortion in that cohort.
The diagram is defined by its two axes, which is why both statements in the question hold by construction.
- Thinking a population pyramid shows literacy, income or occupation; it shows age and sex and nothing else.
- Reading a wide base as a large population; it indicates a young age structure, whatever the total.
- Assuming the shape is always a pyramid; an ageing country's diagram is closer to a barrel or an inverted pyramid.
As a definition check like this one, as which shape corresponds to which stage of the demographic transition, or as an interpretation item on a described pyramid.
India is regarded as a country with “Demographic Dividend”. This is due to
- (a) Its high population in the age group below 15 years
- (b) Its high population in the age group of 15-64 years
- (c) Its high population in the age group above 65 years
- (d) Its high total population
Answer(b) Its high population in the age group of 15-64 years
What the age axis of a pyramid is actually used for. The dividend is a statement about the middle bands of the diagram being unusually wide relative to the bands above and below them.
Consider the following specific stages of demographic transition associated with economic development: 1. Low birthrate with low death rate 2. High birthrate with high death rate 3. High birthrate with low death rate. Select the correct order of the above stages.
- (a) 1, 2, 3
- (b) 2, 1, 3
- (c) 2, 3, 1
- (d) 3, 2, 1
Answer(c) 2, 3, 1
The process the shape of a pyramid records. Each stage of the transition produces a recognisable outline — wide base, then a bulge working up the diagram, then straight sides — so reading the two topics together turns a definition into a diagnosis.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A population pyramid with a very broad base and a narrow apex indicates
- (a)low fertility and an ageing population
- (b)high fertility and a young population
- (c)a population with equal numbers in every age group
- (d)heavy net out-migration of the elderly
Answer(b) high fertility and a young population — the expansive shape typical of an early stage of the demographic transition.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In demography, the working-age population is conventionally taken as the age group
- (a)0-14 years
- (b)15-64 years
- (c)18-60 years
- (d)21-58 years
Answer(b) 15-64 years — the band whose share underlies the idea of a demographic dividend.