MPSC 2024 Prelims Paper-I · Question 25 of 100

Correct — option (4), both statements are correct. Statement (a) says that at the 2011 Census, Mumbai suburban district had the highest population density in Maharashtra, and it did: the district returned about 20,980 persons per square kilometre, the highest figure in the state and among the highest of any district in India. Statement (b) says Kolhapur district was the fifth most densely populated district in Maharashtra, and on the 2011 figures it was: the order at the top of the list runs Mumbai Suburban at roughly 20,980, Mumbai City at roughly 19,652, Thane at roughly 1,157, Pune at roughly 603 and Kolhapur at roughly 504 persons per square kilometre. Since neither statement is false, options (1), (2) and (3) all fail and only option (4) survives. Two features of this list are worth taking away rather than just the answer. First, the drop between ranks is enormous — the two Mumbai districts are an order of magnitude denser than Thane, and Thane is roughly double Pune — so the top of the list is not a smooth gradient but a cliff, which is what a single overwhelming metropolitan agglomeration does to a state's district table. Second, Mumbai suburban outranks Mumbai City, which surprises candidates who assume the older island city must be the denser of the two; the suburban district holds a far larger population, and although it also covers more ground, its density still comes out ahead. Kolhapur's appearance at fifth is the more instructive fact, because it is not a metropolitan district at all — it is a well-watered, intensively cultivated district in southern Maharashtra with a dense rural settlement pattern, and its ranking shows that high density in this state is produced both by urban concentration at the top and by fertile, closely settled countryside just below it.

• (1)Statement (a) is correct and Statement (b) is false — This option correctly accepts statement (a) but rejects statement (b), and statement (b) is in fact sound. Kolhapur did stand fifth among Maharashtra's districts by population density at the 2011 Census, behind Mumbai Suburban, Mumbai City, Thane and Pune. The option is attractive to a candidate who is confident about the Mumbai fact — which almost everyone is — and simply unsure about a rank as specific as fifth, and who therefore treats the unfamiliar half of the question as the false half. Uncertainty about a statement is not evidence against it.
• (2)Statement (b) is correct and Statement (a) is false — This option rejects statement (a), which is the better-established of the two. Mumbai suburban district did record the highest population density of any district in Maharashtra at the 2011 Census, at about 20,980 persons per square kilometre. The only reading on which a candidate might doubt it is the assumption that Mumbai City, the older island district, must be denser than the suburbs — but the 2011 figures put Mumbai City second, at about 19,652. Getting that pair the wrong way round is the single most likely route to this option.
• (3)Both Statements are wrong — This requires both a well-documented fact about Mumbai suburban district and a correct district ranking for Kolhapur to be false at the same time, and neither is. On a two-statement question the 'both wrong' option is usually the least likely of the four, because a paper-setter who has taken the trouble to draft two specific, checkable claims rarely makes both of them false; but it still has to be rejected on the facts rather than on that reasoning, and here the 2011 Census figures reject it directly.

Population density is population divided by land area, expressed as persons per square kilometre, and it is the census indicator most sensitive to the boundary you draw. A district that is almost entirely built up returns a figure in the tens of thousands; a district of the same population spread over a large rural area returns a figure in the hundreds. Maharashtra's district table shows both effects at once. At the 2011 Census the state as a whole stood at 365 persons per square kilometre, below the all-India figure of 382, because the state contains large, thinly peopled tracts in the drought-prone interior and in the forested east alongside one of the world's densest urban agglomerations. Within that state average the range across districts spans more than two orders of magnitude, from the Mumbai districts at around twenty thousand down to sparsely settled districts in the hundreds. Reading a density figure therefore always means asking what the denominator is: an urban district's number reflects the built environment, a rural district's number reflects the productivity of the land and the settlement pattern it supports.

MPSC treats Maharashtra's 2011 Census figures as a fixed body of examinable data and returns to it every year — the state's rank by population, its density, its literacy and sex ratio, and district-level extremes at the top and bottom of each indicator. This question is a good example of the Commission's preferred design for the topic: pair one fact that almost every candidate knows with one that requires the actual ranked table, so the question separates candidates who have read the table from those who have read a summary. The habit worth building is to memorise not just the highest and lowest district on each indicator but the first four or five in order, because that is exactly the space in which the second statement of such a pair is drafted. It is also worth noting the structure of the option list here: statements (a) and (b) are labelled in parentheses just as the answer choices are numbered, so in discussion always name them as 'statement (a)' and 'option (1)' to keep the two systems apart.

• At the 2011 Census, Mumbai suburban district had the highest population density of any district in Maharashtra, at about 20,980 persons per square kilometre.
• The five densest districts of Maharashtra at the 2011 Census were, in order, Mumbai Suburban, Mumbai City, Thane, Pune and Kolhapur, with Kolhapur at about 504 persons per square kilometre.
• Mumbai City district ranked second at about 19,652 persons per square kilometre, below Mumbai Suburban — the older island district is not the denser of the two.
• Maharashtra's overall population density at the 2011 Census was 365 persons per square kilometre, below the all-India figure of 382.
• Density is population divided by area, so a district's figure depends as much on how much land the boundary encloses as on how many people live inside it.

• Assuming Mumbai City district must be denser than Mumbai suburban district because it is the older, more built-up island city — the 2011 figures put Mumbai Suburban first
• Marking the statement you are less sure about as false; on a two-statement question, unfamiliarity is not evidence, and both statements can be true
• Confusing rank by population with rank by density — Thane and Pune are very large districts by population, but their density ranking is a different question
• Mixing up the paper's two labelling systems: the statements are printed (a) and (b) while the answer choices are printed (1) to (4), and quoting a bare letter makes the reference ambiguous

MPSC's Census questions on Maharashtra come in three recurring forms: a single-fact recall of a state figure, a two-statement true or false pair like this one, and a set of four statements to be sorted. The two-statement form is the Commission's usual way of testing whether a candidate can hold a ranked list rather than a headline, since it pairs a famous fact with a positional one. The most reliable preparation is the 2011 Census district table for Maharashtra itself, read in rank order for density, sex ratio and literacy, rather than a digest of state totals.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  At the 2011 Census, which district of Maharashtra recorded the highest population density in the state ?

  • (a)Mumbai City
  • (b)Mumbai Suburban
  • (c)Thane
  • (d)Pune

  Answer(b) Mumbai Suburban — about 20,980 persons per square kilometre, the highest in Maharashtra. Mumbai City district followed at about 19,652, Thane at about 1,157 and Pune at about 603, so the drop between the two Mumbai districts and the rest of the state is an order of magnitude.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Maharashtra's population density at the 2011 Census stood at 365 persons per square kilometre. How did this compare with the all-India figure ?

  • (a)It was above the all-India figure of 325
  • (b)It was below the all-India figure of 382
  • (c)It was exactly equal to the all-India figure
  • (d)It was above the all-India figure of 274

  Answer(b) It was below the all-India figure of 382 — Maharashtra contains one of the world's densest urban agglomerations, but also extensive thinly settled tracts in the drought-prone interior and the forested east, and the state average of 365 comes out under the national figure.