SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 20 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

According to Census 2011, which district displays the highest population?

(a)Kollam
(b)Thane
(c)Pune
(d)Ajmer

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Thane, in Maharashtra, was the most populous district in the 2011 Census, counting more than 1.1 crore people — more than several Indian states hold.

Thane lies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and its total sweeps in the dense urban belt of Thane city, Kalyan-Dombivli, Bhiwandi and Mira-Bhayandar. Option (b) is the district that metropolitan spread pushed to the top of the table.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Kollam — Kollam is a coastal district of Kerala counting a fraction of Thane's population. Kerala's districts are densely settled but small in absolute numbers.
(c)
Pune — Pune is the closest wrong answer: a large, metropolitan district in the same state, but its 2011 population still fell short of Thane's.
(d)
Ajmer — Ajmer is a mid-sized Rajasthan district. Rajasthan's big districts are big in area rather than in population, and Ajmer is nowhere near the top of the count.

Concept

Census 2011 questions reward a short stock of superlatives — most populous, densest, highest sex ratio, highest literacy — rather than any broad reading.

Thane heads the district population table because the growth of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is spread across it rather than confined to the city.

Census 2011 was the fifteenth census of India and the seventh since Independence. Its figures remain the working reference, because the next decennial census was postponed.

Memorise the superlatives, not the table.

The 2011 figure covers a larger Thane than exists today: Palghar district was carved out of it in 2014, after the count was taken.

Key facts

Thane in Maharashtra was the most populous district in Census 2011, with over 1.1 crore people.
Census 2011 was the fifteenth census of India and the seventh after Independence.
Palghar district was created out of Thane district in 2014.
Pune, also in Maharashtra, is populous but ranked below Thane in 2011.

Study next

Census 2011 superlatives for states, districts and Union TerritoriesPopulation density and sex ratio rankings from Census 2011Urban agglomerations and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Common traps

Choosing Pune because it is the more familiar city name.
Answering with a state-level fact — Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state, not district.
Applying present-day district boundaries to a 2011 figure taken before Palghar was separated.

Census 2011 comes as single figures or superlatives — the male-female literacy gap (12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.17), the Union Territory with the highest slum population (17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21) and India's annual exponential growth rate (24 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.23).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.