NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 14 Population Density in Cities — THINK ABOUT IT
Book page 193 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Fig. 7.3 shows the satellite view of a village and a city in Haryana, respectively. The larger blocks of green and brown land on the left in the village show open areas, whereas the grey built-up area on the right shows a complex network of buildings. What can you infer about the population density of the two regions? Why do you think such a difference exists?
Answer
The inference: Asadpur Khera has a low population density and Gurugram a very high one. Look at what fills each frame. On the left, almost the whole image is field — large rectangular blocks of brown and green, cut by a few thin roads, with the houses gathered into one small cluster near the middle where the label ‘Asadpur Khera’ sits. On the right, the grey built-up surface is unbroken from edge to edge; you can pick out the sector grid (Sector 4, Sector 10A, Sector 14 are all marked in one small frame), a hospital marker and a temple, with only thin strips of green surviving between blocks.
Population density = total population of a region ÷ area of the region (in sq km)
The two images cover a similar area of ground.
Left: the same square kilometre is mostly crop, and holds one small cluster of houses.
Right: the same square kilometre is almost entirely roofs, and the buildings also rise upward.
Same denominator, far larger numerator on the right — so density is many times higher in Gurugram.
The squares are equal, so only the numerator changes. This is why density, not population alone, is what demographers compare.
Why the difference exists — it follows from the kind of work each place does.
Farming needs land per household. A family that lives by cultivation must have fields, so houses stay few and spread out. You can see the fields taking the space in the left image.
Urban work needs floor space, not land. Offices, shops, factories and services can be stacked, so a city grows upward and packs many more people onto the same square kilometre.
Jobs pull people in. Gurugram has been a major IT and BPO hub since the 1990s, drawing global companies and driving housing and commercial development — the chapter’s own explanation. Every new job brings a household that needs somewhere to live inside the same city limits.
Services make the density work. Piped water, sewerage, electricity, roads and public transport are what allow so many people to live so close together; a village neither has nor needs them at that scale.
Check it yourself: count the roofs in a 1 cm square of each image in your book. You will not get an exact population, but the ratio you get is the point — and it will be large.