What do you mean by the rate of natural increase?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 3

The correct answer is Option (3) → The difference between birth rates and death rates

Option (1) The difference between sex ratio and death rate — Incorrect. The sex ratio is the number of females per 1000 males; it measures gender balance, not growth, and cannot be subtracted from a death rate.

Option (2) The difference between birth rate and sex ratio — Incorrect. Birth rate is part of the answer, but the sex ratio has no place in the growth rate.

Option (3) The difference between birth rates and death rates — Correct. The birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 people, and the death rate the number of deaths per 1000 people, in a year. The rate of natural increase, or growth rate of population, is the birth rate minus the death rate. When the difference is zero or very small, the population has stabilised at the replacement level.

Option (4) The proportion of individuals in different age groups relative to the total population. — Incorrect. This is the age structure of the population, not its rate of increase.

NCERT (2025-26): “2.1 Some Theories and Concepts in Demography … For example, the birth rate is the total number of live births in a particular area (an entire country, a state, a district or other territorial unit) during a specified period (usually a year) divided by the total population of that area in thousands. In other words, the birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 population. The death rate is a similar statistic, expressed as the number of deaths in a given area during a given time per 1000 population. These statistics depend on the reporting of births and deaths by the families in which they occur. 10 The rate of natural increase or the growth rate of population refers to the difference between the birth rate and the death rate. When this difference is zero (or, in practice, very small) then we say that the population has ‘stabilised’, or has reached the ‘replacement level’, which is the rate of growth required for new generations to replace the older ones that are dying out.…”