NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q99: Which one of the following Indian States has recorded

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q99?

D. Correct — D, Nagaland. It was the only Indian State to record a fall in population between two censuses: 1,990,036 people in 2001 against 1,978,502 in 2011, a decadal growth rate of about −0·6 per cent. The reason is not that people left or that births collapsed. Scholars attribute the drop to the 2001 count having been inflated — enumeration in Nagaland had long been disputed, and several districts returned implausible growth in 1991 and 2001 — so the 2011 figure is treated as the more reliable of the two, and the apparent decline is largely a correction of the earlier over-count.

NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 99 of 146

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Which one of the following Indian States has recorded negative growth of population as per Census 2011?

(a)Manipur
(b)Mizoram
(c)Tripura
(d)Nagaland

Answer

Why

Correct — D, Nagaland. It was the only Indian State to record a fall in population between two censuses: 1,990,036 people in 2001 against 1,978,502 in 2011, a decadal growth rate of about −0·6 per cent. The reason is not that people left or that births collapsed. Scholars attribute the drop to the 2001 count having been inflated — enumeration in Nagaland had long been disputed, and several districts returned implausible growth in 1991 and 2001 — so the 2011 figure is treated as the more reliable of the two, and the apparent decline is largely a correction of the earlier over-count.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Manipur — Manipur grew between 2001 and 2011, like every other State except Nagaland. It is a plausible-looking option only because it belongs to the same small north-eastern group, where absolute numbers are low and a fall is easy to imagine.
(b)Mizoram — Mizoram also grew over the decade. It is worth keeping separate for a different reason — it is the State with the lowest population density among the north-eastern hill States in Census 2011, and density is a different measure from growth.
(c)Tripura — Tripura grew as well, and it is the most densely settled of the small north-eastern States. Nothing in the 2011 Census puts it in the negative-growth column.

Concept

Decadal growth rate is the percentage change in a State's population between two successive censuses. India's overall decadal growth for 2001–2011 was about 17·7 per cent, the first decade since independence in which the absolute number added was smaller than in the decade before. Within that national picture the range across States is wide, and Census 2011 threw up one genuinely singular case: Nagaland, alone among all the States, returned a smaller population than it had ten years earlier. The episode is a standard illustration of why census figures have to be read as measurements rather than as facts — a change in the count can reflect a change in the counting.

This is a single-fact recall item, and the safe anchor is that Nagaland is the only correct answer to the question 'which State shrank in Census 2011', in whatever wording it appears. The three distractors are chosen from the same neighbourhood so that a student who remembers only 'a small north-eastern State' cannot pick between them. Two present-day cautions matter for anyone studying this now. Census 2011 is still the latest completed census — the 2021 round was postponed and the next census is scheduled for 2027 — so 'as per Census 2011' remains the current figure rather than a historical one. And the negative growth should be described as a measured decline whose cause was probably an earlier over-count, not as depopulation.

Key facts

Nagaland was the only State to record a population decline in Census 2011, falling from 1,990,036 to 1,978,502.
Its decadal growth rate for 2001–2011 was about −0·6 per cent.
The decline is generally attributed to over-counting in the earlier censuses rather than to actual loss of population.
India's overall decadal growth for 2001–2011 was about 17·7 per cent; Census 2011 remains the latest completed census.

The four options against the 2001–2011 record

Nagaland→1,990,036 in 2001 to 1,978,502 in 2011 — about −0·6 per cent, the only State to shrink (the key's answer)

Manipur→Grew over the decade, like every other State

Mizoram→Grew over the decade; its distinction is low population density, which is a different measure

Tripura→Grew over the decade, and is the most densely settled of these four

Only one State in the whole country returned a smaller population in 2011 than in 2001.

Study next

Census 2011 headline figures — population, decadal growth, density, sex ratio and literacyStates at the extremes of sex ratio, literacy and density in Census 2011The demographic transition and where different Indian States sit on itHow a census is conducted in India, and the difference between houselisting and population enumerationWhy the 2021 census was postponed and what the 2027 round is expected to cover

Common traps

Confusing negative growth with low density. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are sparsely settled but both grew.
Explaining the decline as migration or as a fall in births; the accepted explanation is a correction of earlier over-counting.
Treating Census 2011 as out of date. It is still the latest completed census in India.

NDA asks for the State at one extreme of a Census 2011 measure — highest or lowest density, sex ratio, literacy or growth.

Related PYQs

NDA_GAT_2017_I_Q682017Open & attempt →

According to the Census 2011, the density of population in which one among the following States is the lowest ?

(a) Sikkim
(b) Nagaland
(c) Manipur
(d) Mizoram

Answer(d) Mizoram

Same Census 2011 material and almost the same four States, but testing density instead of growth — the pair together is the cleanest way to keep the two measures apart.

NDA_GAT_2018_II_Q1172018Open & attempt →

Which one of the following is the correct descending order of Indian States in terms of sex ratio as per Census 2011?

(a) Mizoram—Manipur—Tripura—Meghalaya
(b) Tripura—Manipur—Meghalaya—Mizoram
(c) Meghalaya—Manipur—Mizoram—Tripura
(d) Manipur—Meghalaya—Tripura—Mizoram

Answer(c) Meghalaya—Manipur—Mizoram—Tripura

The same paper's second Census 2011 item, drawn from the same north-eastern States — growth rate here, sex ratio eighteen questions later, from one data set.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
According to Census 2011, which Indian State recorded the highest decadal growth rate of population?
- (a)Meghalaya
- (b)Bihar
- (c)Uttar Pradesh
- (d)Kerala
Answer(a) Meghalaya — it topped the States at roughly 27 per cent, while Nagaland alone recorded a decline.
practice — not a real PYQ
The decadal growth rate of a State is calculated as the percentage change in its population
- (a)over the previous financial year
- (b)between two successive censuses
- (c)since independence
- (d)per thousand of the national population
Answer(b) between two successive censuses — which in India are taken ten years apart.