MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 68 of 100

Correct — D, 14.69 per cent. Census 2011 counted about 10.43 crore Scheduled Tribes in India, of whom roughly 1.53 crore live in Madhya Pradesh. That works out to about 14.69 per cent — the largest share of any State, which is why Madhya Pradesh is called the State with the biggest tribal population in absolute numbers. Maharashtra comes next with about 10 per cent of the country's ST population and Odisha after that with roughly 9 per cent.

• (a)31.84 — Far too high. Nearly a third of India's 10.43-crore ST population would mean about 3.3 crore tribal people in Madhya Pradesh — more than double the 1.53 crore the Census actually recorded, and more than the entire ST population of the top three States combined.
• (b)29.25 — No State reaches anything near this share of India's ST population. India's tribal population is spread across many States; the leader, Madhya Pradesh, is under 15 per cent.
• (c)28.16 — Same problem — it would put roughly 2.9 crore STs in Madhya Pradesh, far beyond the recorded figure. Numbers in the high twenties belong to no State's share of the national ST total.

Two very different tribal percentages are computed from the same Census and are constantly confused. One is a State's share of the national ST population — Madhya Pradesh 14.69 per cent, the highest. The other is the ST share within a State's own population — for Madhya Pradesh about 21 per cent, while in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep and Arunachal Pradesh it crosses 60–90 per cent. A State can lead on the first measure and be nowhere near the top on the second.

Read the stem carefully: it asks 'what percentage of the total Scheduled Tribe population of the country', so the denominator is India's tribal population, not Madhya Pradesh's population. Once you fix the denominator, the arithmetic filter does the rest — 14.69 per cent of 10.43 crore is about 1.53 crore, which matches MP's recorded tribal count, while the three options in the high twenties and thirties would demand a tribal population larger than several big States put together.

• Census 2011: India's Scheduled Tribe population is about 10.43 crore, 8.6 per cent of the country's population
• Madhya Pradesh has about 1.53 crore STs — the largest tribal population of any State, 14.69 per cent of the national ST total
• Within Madhya Pradesh, Scheduled Tribes are about 21 per cent of the State's own population
• Maharashtra (about 10 per cent) and Odisha (about 9 per cent) rank next in share of the national ST population
• Bhil is the most numerous tribe in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Gond

• Answering with 21 per cent — that is the ST share inside Madhya Pradesh, not MP's share of India's ST population
• Assuming the State with the largest tribal population also has the highest tribal proportion; on proportion the north-eastern States lead by far
• Quoting Census 2011 figures as if they were current — no Census has been conducted since 2011

MPPSC asks Census 2011 tribal percentages, rankings and district extremes for Madhya Pradesh almost every year. UPSC rarely asks the bare number but does test the consequence — for example which State has the most ST-reserved Lok Sabha seats.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As per Census 2011, Scheduled Tribes constitute what percentage of India's total population?

  • (a)8.6
  • (b)10.4
  • (c)16.6
  • (d)21.1

  Answer(a) 8.6 per cent — about 10.43 crore people out of 121 crore.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As per Census 2011, which State has the largest Scheduled Tribe population in absolute numbers?

  • (a)Maharashtra
  • (b)Odisha
  • (c)Madhya Pradesh
  • (d)Rajasthan

  Answer(c) Madhya Pradesh — about 1.53 crore STs, the highest of any State.