BCS examination - Statistical cadre · Bangladesh · Bangladesh Public Service Commission
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersMeasuring populations and their change: sources of demographic data, fertility, mortality and migration measures, life tables, population growth models and projection, which the Indian Statistical Service and national statistical offices examine and rural and farm-household studies use.
In the exams: UPSC ISS Statistics IV (heavy, reported); SSC CGL JSO (present); light in ICAR exams
How our questions for BCS examination spread across the units of Demography & Vital Statistics. Difficulty: 8 easy, 16 medium, 0 hard.
| Sources of demographic data: census, civil registration and sample registration | 3 | |
| Measures of fertility: crude, general, age-specific and total fertility rates; GRR and NRR | 3 | |
| Measures of mortality: crude, age-specific and standardised death rates; infant mortality | 3 | |
| Life tables: construction and uses; abridged life tables | 3 | |
| Migration measures | 3 | |
| Population growth models: exponential and logistic curves | 3 | |
| Population projection: component method | 2 | |
| Stable and stationary populations | 2 | |
| Rural and farm-household demography | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A census counts each person at the place where they were present on census night. What kind of census is this?
D. De facto
A de facto census counts people where they are at the census moment; a de jure census counts them at their usual residence.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
In a year there are 4,000 live births and 180 deaths of infants under one year. What is the infant mortality rate?
A. 45 per 1,000 live births
IMR = 180/4,000 × 1,000 = 45. The denominator is live births, not the infant population.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
Death rates per 1,000 are 5 (under 50) and 20 (50 and over) in district A. A standard population has 70,000 under 50 and 30,000 aged 50 and over. What is A's directly standardised death rate?
C. 9.5 per 1,000
SDR = (5 × 70,000 + 20 × 30,000)/100,000 = 9.5 per 1,000. 12.5 is the unweighted average of the two rates.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
How is the maternal mortality ratio expressed?
D. Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
The maternal mortality ratio uses live births as the denominator and is expressed per 100,000; the maternal mortality rate uses women of reproductive age.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
In a life table, l₆₀ = 80,000 and T₆₀ = 1,600,000. What is the expectation of life at age 60?
B. 20 years
e₆₀ = T₆₀/l₆₀ = 1,600,000/80,000 = 20 years.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
Why is L₀ not computed as (l₀ + l₁)/2 in a life table?
A. Infant deaths cluster early in the year
Most infant deaths occur in the first weeks, so the average time lived by infants who die (separation factor a₀) is well below half a year: L₀ = l₁ + a₀d₀.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
A district grows from 500,000 to 540,000 between censuses, with 120,000 registered births and 50,000 deaths. What is the net migration by the vital statistics method?
C. -30,000
Net migration = (P_t − P₀) − (B − D) = 40,000 − 70,000 = -30,000: a net loss. +40,000 is the total change; −70,000 the negative of natural increase.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
Why are international migration statistics among the least comparable demographic data across countries?
D. Countries define migrants with different minimum durations and boundaries
The UN recommends one year of changed residence for long-term migrants, but national definitions and data sources (registers, border data, surveys) differ.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
A population grows from 100 million to 150 million in 10 years. What is the geometric annual growth rate?
C. 4.14% per year
(1 + r)¹⁰ = 1.5, so r = 1.5^0.1 − 1 = 4.14%. 4.05% is the continuous (exponential) rate.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
A herd keeps a constant size of 600 cows, and cows remain in the herd for 5 years on average. How many replacement heifers enter each year, by stationary-population reasoning?
D. 120
In a stationary population, annual entries = population/average duration (CBR = 1/e₀): 600/5 = 120.
Further reading: Preston, Heuveline and Guillot, Demography; Pollard, Yusuf and Pollard, Demographic Techniques; Keyfitz and Caswell, Applied Mathematical Demography; UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses
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