Arrange the following five census years (1941 - 1981) in terms of urban population share from lowest to highest.
(A) 1941
(B) 1951
(C) 1961
(D) 1971
(E) 1981
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (B), (C), (D), (E)
The urban population has been increasing its share steadily through the twentieth century, so the census years fall in the same order as time:
(A) 1941 — 13.9 per cent urban.
(B) 1951 — 17.3 per cent urban.
(C) 1961 — 18.0 per cent urban.
(D) 1971 — 19.9 per cent urban.
(E) 1981 — 23.3 per cent urban.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.6 Rural-Urban Differences … The vast majority of the population of India has always lived in the rural areas, and that continues to be true. According to Census of India 2011 still more people are living in rural areas but the population of urban areas has increased. Now 68.8% population lives in rural areas while 31.2% people live in urban areas. However, as Table 5 shows, the urban population has been increasing its share steadily, from about 11% at the beginning of the twentieth century to about 28% at the beginning of the twenty-first century, an increase of about two-and-a-half times. It is not a question of numbers alone; processes of modern development ensure that the economic and social significance of the agrarian-rural way of life declines relative to the significance of the industrial-urban way of life. This has been broadly true all over the world, and it is true in India as well.”
Table 5: Rural and Urban Population |
