NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography Chapter 1 Population: Distribution, Density, Growth and Composition

Ans : (i) (a) 1028 million
(ii) (a) West Bengal
(iii) (b) Maharashtra
(iv) (b) Indo — Aryan 

Ans : (i) Climate plays a very important role in influencing population. The two elements of climate, rainfall and temperature play the most important role in determining the population of an area. When a place has extremes to climate, the density of population is low such as too cold climate of Himalayas, and the too hot and dry climate ot the Thar Desert. When a place has moderate climate, it attracts people and has high density of population. Rainfall supplies water for agriculture which is the main occupation of Indian people. The amount of rainfall decreases as we move from the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta in the east towards the Thar Desert in the west.


(ii) The states like Bihar and Sikkim have very high percentage of rural population. The reason is both states Bihar and Sikkim are highly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.


(iii) In India, the work participation rate are higher in the areas of lower levels of economic development since number of manual workers are needed to perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities


(iv) About 54.6 per cent of total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers. whereas only 3.8% of workers are engaged in household industries and 41.6 % are other workers including non household industries. trade. commerce. construction and repair and other services. 

Ans : (i) Density of population. is expressed as number of persons per unit area. It helps in getting a better understanding of the spatial distribution of population in relation to land. The density of  population in India is 382 persons per sq km.
The spatial variation of population densities in the country ranges from as low as 17 persons per sq km in Arunachal Pradesh to 11.320 persons in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Among the northern Indian States. Bihar (1106). West Bengal (1028) and and Uttar Pradesh (829) have higher densities. while Kerala (860) and Tamil Nadu (555) have higher densities among the peninsular Indian states.

States like Assam. Gujarat. Andhra Pradesh. Haryana. Jharkhand. Odisha have moderate densities.
The hill states of the Himalayan region and North eastern states of India (excluding Assam) have relatively low densities while the Union Territories (excluding Andaman and Nicobar islands) have very high densities of population.


(ii) The occupational structure of a country refers to the division of its work force engaged in different economic activities.
India have a large proportion of primary sector workers compared to secondary and tertiary sectors.

About 54.6 percent of total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers. whereas only 3.8% of workers are engaged in household industries and 41.6 % are other workers including non household industries. trade. commerce. construction and repair and other services.
As far as the occupation of country's male and female population is concerned. male workers outnumber female workers in all the three sectors.
The number of female workers is relatively high in primary sector. though in recent years there has been some improvement in work participation of women in secondary and tertiary sectors.

The proportion of workers in agricultural sector in India has shown a decline over the last few decades (58.2% in 2001 to 54.6% in 2011).
Consequently. the participation rate in secondary and tertiary sector has registered an increase. This indicates a shift of dependence of workers from tree based occupations to non- farm based ones. indicating a sectoral shift in the economy of the country.