Statistical Officer recruitment Demography & Vital Statistics: practice questions
Statistical Officer recruitment (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics) · Pakistan · Federal Public Service Commission
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
18written to this exam in this subject
9syllabus units
About Statistical Officer recruitment
Statistical Officer recruitment (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics) is a government recruitment exam run by Federal Public Service Commission, for candidates in Pakistan. Written test in statistics and general subjects, then interview (reported).
We have not been able to confirm these details against the exam body's own specification, so fees, dates and pass marks are left out on purpose. Check the current format, eligibility, fees and dates on the official site.
Demography & Vital Statistics in Statistical Officer recruitment
Measuring 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.
Our 18 Statistical Officer recruitment questions in this subject: 3 easy, 14 medium, 1 hard, across 9 units.
10 practice questions, worked
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to Statistical Officer recruitment and are not shown on any other exam's page.
Question 1 · medium
Why is the TFR called a period or synthetic-cohort measure?
It is measured on an actual cohort of women followed to age 50
It is averaged over a ten-year period between censuses
It applies one period's age-specific rates to a hypothetical woman
It counts births in one year to women of all ages without any age detail
Answer and working
C. It applies one period's age-specific rates to a hypothetical woman
The TFR combines rates experienced by different real cohorts in one year. Completed fertility of a real cohort is known only when its members reach age 50.
Question 2 · hard
A region records 4,000 live births, 60 stillbirths and 40 deaths in the first week of life. What is the perinatal mortality rate?
25.0 per 1,000 live births
15.0 per 1,000 live births
24.6 per 1,000 total births
10.0 per 1,000 live births
Answer and working
C. 24.6 per 1,000 total births
Perinatal mortality = (stillbirths + early neonatal deaths)/(live births + stillbirths) × 1,000 = 100/4,060 × 1,000 = 24.6. 25.0 uses live births as the denominator.
Question 3 · medium
What is the typical shape of age-specific death rates plotted against age?
Constant across all ages after the first year of life, with no rise in old age
Steadily decreasing from birth to old age as frail individuals die early
Highest in the 20-29 age group because of accidents, and falling after that
J- or U-shaped: high in infancy, lowest around 5-14, rising steeply in old age
Answer and working
D. J- or U-shaped: high in infancy, lowest around 5-14, rising steeply in old age
Mortality is high in infancy, lowest in late childhood, then rises roughly exponentially with age in adulthood (the Gompertz pattern).
Question 4 · medium
In a population with high infant mortality, life expectancy at age 1 is greater than at birth. How is this possible?
It is impossible, since e₁ must always be exactly one year less than e₀
Life expectancy is computed with different radices at the two ages
Infants who die are excluded from the calculation of e₁ but survivors aged 1 are counted twice
Surviving the high-risk first year removes the many early deaths that pull e₀ down
Answer and working
D. Surviving the high-risk first year removes the many early deaths that pull e₀ down
e₀ averages over everyone born, including many who die in infancy; those who survive to age 1 have escaped that risk, so e₁ can exceed e₀.
Question 5 · medium
In Chiang's method for abridged life tables, what does ₙaₓ represent?
The number of survivors remaining at the end of the age interval
The average fraction of the interval lived by those who die in it
The width of the age interval in years, usually five in abridged tables
The probability of surviving through the whole of the interval
Answer and working
B. The average fraction of the interval lived by those who die in it
With ₙaₓ, ₙLₓ = n lₓ₊ₙ + ₙaₓ ₙdₓ and ₙqₓ = n ₙmₓ/(1 + (n − ₙaₓ)ₙmₓ). It equals n/2 under the even-spread assumption.
Question 6 · medium
A census asks each person their place of birth. Persons living outside their birthplace are what kind of migrants?
Period migrants over the last five years
Return migrants
Lifetime migrants
Circular migrants
Answer and working
C. Lifetime migrants
Place of birth compared with current residence identifies lifetime migrants, whose move could have occurred at any time; fixed-date questions identify period migrants.
Question 7 · medium
According to the Harris-Todaro model, why can rural-urban migration continue despite urban unemployment?
Migrants respond to expected urban income, wage times job probability
Migrants are unaware of urban unemployment levels in every case studied
Rural wages always exceed urban wages, so migrants move for other reasons
Governments require rural people to move to towns when harvests fail
Answer and working
A. Migrants respond to expected urban income, wage times job probability
If the urban wage multiplied by the probability of finding a job exceeds rural income, migration continues, sustaining urban unemployment.
Question 8 · medium
In the FAO framework for agricultural censuses, who is the holder of an agricultural holding?
Always the oldest male member of the household that owns the land
The person who legally owns the land, whoever farms it
The person who makes the major decisions on the holding
The person who spends the most hours working on the holding
Answer and working
C. The person who makes the major decisions on the holding
The holder exercises management control; the holder need not be the household head, the landowner or the main worker.
Question 9 · medium
Why is the age-dependency ratio often higher in rural than in urban areas of low- and middle-income countries?
Rural mortality is lower at old ages than urban mortality in all countries
Rural fertility is higher and working-age adults migrate to towns
Censuses count rural children twice when families move seasonally
Urban areas have more children per woman than rural areas everywhere
Answer and working
B. Rural fertility is higher and working-age adults migrate to towns
Higher rural fertility adds children, and selective out-migration of young adults leaves children and older people behind.
Question 10 · medium
A farm survey records only persons present on the interview day. What is the main risk for measuring household labour and income?
Income from crops is counted twice
Livestock owned by the household are counted as household members
Absent migrant members and their remittances are missed
Income from crops sold during the season is counted twice in the totals
Answer and working
C. Absent migrant members and their remittances are missed
Seasonal and circular migration means many members are away; rosters need rules for absent members and modules on remittances.
A study plan for Demography & Vital Statistics in Statistical Officer recruitment
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
First, the heavy units (44% of the 18 questions): Life tables: construction and uses; abridged life tables (3, 17%); Rural and farm-household demography (3, 17%); Measures of fertility: crude, general, age-specific and total fertility rates; GRR and NRR (2, 11%).
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Then the middle band: Measures of mortality: crude, age-specific and standardised death rates; infant mortality (2, 11%); Migration measures (2, 11%); Population projection: component method (2, 11%).
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Then the lighter units: Sources of demographic data: census, civil registration and sample registration (2, 11%); Population growth models: exponential and logistic curves (1, 6%); Stable and stationary populations (1, 6%).
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Leave time for the hard ones: Measures of mortality: crude, age-specific and standardised death rates; infant mortality (1 hard of 2).
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
Bank the easy marks: Population growth models: exponential and logistic curves (1 easy of 1); Stable and stationary populations (1 easy of 1).
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
Finish timed. Sit the subject as a timed set without notes, mark it, and send each wrong answer back to its unit above.