SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 12 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 the Census of India 2011, which group of Union Territories has the highest density of population?

(a)Delhi, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu
(b)Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Puducherry
(c)Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry
(d)Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Chandigarh

Answer

Why

Correct — C. In the Census of India 2011 the three most densely populated Union Territories were Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry, in that order.

Delhi recorded about 11,320 persons per square kilometre and Chandigarh about 9,258, far above anything else offered.

Puducherry takes third place, ahead of both Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep, and that comparison is what the remaining groups get wrong. Option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Delhi, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu — Delhi and Chandigarh are right, but Daman and Diu ranked below Puducherry on 2011 density, so the third member fails.
(b)
Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Puducherry — This group drops Delhi and Chandigarh, the two densest units in the country, so it cannot be the top three whatever Puducherry's rank.
(d)
Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Chandigarh — Chandigarh belongs, but the group omits Delhi, the densest unit in India. No arrangement of the rest can make it the top three.

Concept

Population density is population divided by land area, reported in persons per square kilometre. Union Territories are small in area, so several of them sit far above any state on this measure.

At the 2011 Census India's overall density was 382 persons per square kilometre. Delhi and Chandigarh are the outliers, because they are essentially urban units with almost no rural hinterland.

Among the states, Bihar was the densest at about 1,106 and Arunachal Pradesh the sparsest, at about 17.

The four options are permutations of the same five territories, so this is a ranking question, not a recall question. Placing Delhi and Chandigarh at the top narrows it to two options, and the third name decides it.

Key facts

Census 2011 recorded Delhi's population density at about 11,320 persons per square kilometre, the highest in India.
Chandigarh's 2011 density was about 9,258 persons per square kilometre.
India's overall population density in Census 2011 was 382 persons per square kilometre.
Bihar was the densest state in 2011 and Arunachal Pradesh the least dense.

Study next

Census 2011 sex ratio and literacy figures for states and Union TerritoriesThe 2020 merger of Daman and Diu with Dadra and Nagar Haveli into one Union TerritoryDecadal population growth between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses

Common traps

Density ranks Union Territories high because their area is tiny, not because their population is large.
Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep sit close together on density, which is where a careless answer goes wrong.
Census 2011 predates the 2019 reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir and the 2020 merger of Daman and Diu.

The same Union-Territory-group format appears at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.2 on sex ratio, and a single-Territory version at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21 on slum population.

Census 2011 is also asked as a national figure, the male-female literacy gap, at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.17.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 111 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.