According to Census 2011, the correct descending order of districts in population growth during 2001-11 decade is:

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Indore, Jhabua, Bhopal. Census 2011 records the decadal growth of population for 2001-11 as 32.88% for Indore, 30.70% for Jhabua and 28.62% for Bhopal — against a state average of 20.30% for Madhya Pradesh and 17.7% for India. Those three are the state's top three districts by growth, and in that order, so the descending sequence is Indore > Jhabua > Bhopal. Notice that the causes differ: Indore and Bhopal, the state's two biggest urban districts, grow largely through in-migration into the cities, while Jhabua, a small tribal-majority district in the western hills, grows on a high birth rate rather than migration.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The right three districts in exactly the wrong order — it places Indore last when Indore in fact recorded the highest decadal growth of any district in Madhya Pradesh (32.88%), and Bhopal, at 28.62%, was the lowest of the three.  (b) It puts Bhopal above Indore, which reverses the actual figures (Indore 32.88% against Bhopal 28.62%), and brings in Gwalior at 24.50% — well outside the state's top three.  (c) The most tempting option, and the one worth understanding: 32.88% > 28.62% > 24.50% is itself a descending sequence, so the trio is internally consistent. It fails because the question wants the districts that actually top the state's growth table, and Jhabua at 30.70% grew faster than Bhopal — so Jhabua, not Gwalior, belongs in the list. Anyone who remembers only the two big cities lands here.

Concept: Decadal growth rate is the percentage change in a district's population between two censuses — here 2001 and 2011 — and it is driven by three things: natural increase (births minus deaths), net migration, and any change in boundaries. Madhya Pradesh in 2011 had a population of about 7.26 crore, a density of 236 persons per sq km and a sex ratio of 931, with decadal growth of 20.30%, which was above the national figure of 17.7%. Within the state the spread is wide: Indore at 32.88% at the top and Anuppur at 12.30% at the bottom, a difference explained by urban pull in the Indore–Bhopal corridor at one end and by out-migration plus a completed fertility decline in the eastern forest districts at the other.

State PCS 2026 Q80 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q80 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer