Population, settlement & transport

Answer: (d) the average number of live births a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing age.

Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing years, given the fertility rates of a particular period. It is counted per woman, not per couple and not per 1,000 people.

• ✓ (d) The WHO defines TFR as the average number of children a hypothetical group of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they experienced the fertility rates of a given period. NCERT reads a TFR of 1.7 as the average woman having 1.7 children.
• ✗ (a) Births per 1,000 people in a year is the crude birth rate, which is measured against the whole population, not against women.
• ✗ (b) TFR is measured per woman and is not a count of children per couple.
• ✗ (c) Birth rate minus death rate is the natural rate of population growth.

Remember · TFR = average children per woman over her child-bearing years; replacement level is about 2.1, and India's TFR fell to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1, 2 and 4

Italy, Japan and South Korea are the standard examples, in NCERT, of countries where fertility has fallen so low that the population is ageing and beginning to shrink. Nigeria is the opposite case, a young and rapidly growing population, and South Africa, whose population is still growing by over 1% a year, is not one of these examples.

• ✓ 1. NCERT names Italy among the European and East Asian countries whose population is shrinking because fertility has dropped.
• ✓ 2. Japan is NCERT's example of an ageing society. It has raised its retirement age and uses automation to make up for labour shortages.
• ✗ 3. Nigeria has a wide-based, young age structure and a population that continues to grow rapidly, so it is not a low-birth-rate case.
• ✓ 4. South Korea is listed together with Italy and Japan as a country where very low fertility is making the population shrink.
• ✗ 5. South Africa is not among the shrinking or ageing countries NCERT names. Stats SA puts its 2025 population at 63.1 million and still growing at 1.23% a year, with about 2.2 children per woman, so it is not a shrinking-population case like Italy, Japan or South Korea.

Remember · Low fertility, ageing or shrinking population: Italy, Japan, South Korea (also China). Nigeria has a young, fast-growing population.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error