Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre (EASTC) programmes · Tanzania / Eastern Africa · Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre
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 Eastern Africa Statistical Training Centre programmes spread across the units of Demography & Vital Statistics. Difficulty: 8 easy, 15 medium, 0 hard.
| Life tables: construction and uses; abridged life tables | 5 | |
| 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 | |
| Migration measures | 3 | |
| Sources of demographic data: census, civil registration and sample registration | 2 | |
| Population growth models: exponential and logistic curves | 2 | |
| Population projection: component method | 2 | |
| Rural and farm-household demography | 2 | |
| Stable and stationary populations | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Demographic and Health Surveys estimate child mortality mainly from which data?
B. Complete birth histories of women of reproductive age
Each woman reports every live birth, its date and, if the child died, the age at death; mortality rates are computed from these histories.
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 has 2,600 live births in a year and 24,000 women aged 15-49 at mid-year. What is the general fertility rate?
B. 108.3 per 1,000 women
GFR = 2,600/24,000 × 1,000 = 108.3 per 1,000 women aged 15-49. 26.0 would use a total population of 100,000 (that is the CBR).
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
Where mortality is low, replacement-level fertility corresponds to a TFR of about what value?
C. 2.1 children per woman
Two children replace the parents; the extra 0.1 allows for more boys than girls at birth and some female deaths before the end of reproduction. Where mortality is higher, replacement TFR is higher.
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
When is indirect standardisation preferred to direct standardisation?
C. When the study population's age rates are unreliable
Indirect standardisation needs only the study population's age distribution and total deaths, applying standard rates to get expected deaths. Direct standardisation needs reliable rates in each study 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
An observed central death rate at age 70 is m₇₀ = 0.02. Assuming deaths are spread evenly over the year, what is q₇₀?
C. 0.0198
q = 2m/(2 + m) = 0.04/2.02 = 0.0198. q is slightly less than m because the denominator of q is persons alive at the start of the year, while m uses person-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
Which constant appears in Reed and Merrell's formula ₙqₓ = 1 − exp(−n ₙmₓ − a n³ ₙmₓ²)?
C. a = 0.008
Reed and Merrell fitted a = 0.008 empirically from many life tables.
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 projected population is 30% aged 0-14, 62% aged 15-64 and 8% aged 65 and over. What is the total dependency ratio?
D. 61.3
Total dependency = (30 + 8)/62 × 100 = 61.3 dependants per 100 working-age persons. 38.0 is the dependants' share of the total population; 48.4 is the youth dependency ratio alone.
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
What did Chayanov argue about peasant farm households?
A. The family life cycle shapes land farmed and work effort
As children are born, consumers per worker rise and workers' effort increases; as children become workers, the household can farm more.
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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